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COPVRrGHT DEPOSIT 



HE RESTORETH 
MY SOUL 



By 



A. H. W. 

{Canada) 



And if, as I believe, life is the test of thought, rather than thought the 
test of life, we should be able to get light on the real worth of a man's 
theories, ideals, beliefs, by looking at the shape which they would give 
to human existence if they were faithfully applied. 

Henry Van Dyke. 
Liberty of Thought is allowed, 
Liberty of sinning is alone denied ; 
Who would refuse to sign this creed? 

John Watson, D.D. 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK 
1910 






^Copyright, igio 

BY 

ELLIOT STOCK 



Ube Ifcnicfcerbocfeer presa, Hew H?orft 



©CI.A265674 



s 



AN APPEAL 
TO MY DEAR COMPATRIOTS 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction vii 

PART I 

SELF-PRESERVATION: THE SOUL'S 
FIRST OFFICE 

I An Atom of the Infinite . . 3 

PART II 

ATTITUDE TOWARDS ONE ANOTHER: 
THE SOUL'S SECOND OFFICE 

II What Lack I Yet? .... 21 

PART III 

ATTITUDE TOWARDS GOD: THE 
SOUL'S FINAL OFFICE 

III The Soul's Conception of God . . 53 

IV What is Truth? — Intellectual 

Religion 83 

V Where is Christ? — Our Faith as a 

Nation . . . . .110 

VI To Live in Christ — His Bride . 136 



vi Contents 



PAGE 



VII The Effect on our Lives of Living 

in Christ ..... 157 

VIII Born Anew from Above — The Holy 

City 176 

IX Right-mindedness Brings Eternal 

Life Reasonably . . .194 

X A Good Citizen — A Redeemed 

People 218 



INTRODUCTION 

IN writing the present volume my object is to 
discuss in some of its aspects the journey of a 
soul, with its trio of duties or offices, introducing 
them to the reader in the order in which they 
naturally occur or evolve in the development of 
an individual life. 

It is an obvious fact that self-preservation is 
the first or initiatory duty or office of the young 
soul and is the only office or duty of early child- 
hood. It is also the first and simplest office or duty 
throughout its earth-life and its gravest responsi- 
bility in all subsequent stages of progression. 

The second part of the trifold office must 
naturally be, as a logical consequence, its attitude 
towards other such individualities by whom it is 
surrounded and with whom it comes in contact. 
If there be no systematic, reasonable discipline 
administered and enforced, then there is chaos 
and conflict, with the " survival of the fittest" 
as an issue. Therefore this soul must be taught 
to strive so to temper its desires and requirements 
that it may in no way injure its fellow-travellers. 

Although we hold it to be the first and simplest 
office of a soul to continue its existence as an indi- 
vidual, we hold this to be merely a stepping-stone 
or gateway for vaster experiences and holier 



viii Introduction 

offices; for we know that as age and reason ad- 
vance, complications arise which give to that soul 
opportunities to radiate such wideness of kind- 
ness and justice or cruelty and wrong as only- 
Heaven can measure. 

The condition called earth-life would be truly- 
pitiful were it not for the last evolved part of the 
trifold office, namely, a proper attitude towards the 
great Father of us all. Hence this soul's third and 
most important duty is to learn to harmonise its 
struggling, rebellious will and desire with the Great, 
Universal Perfection. 

This order of ethics comes not from written 
law alone but from the omniscient Father teach- 
ing through mother Nature as she clothes with 
material life and individuality this soul-germ of 
immortality for its long, long, upward, struggling, 
victorious march to the infinite Creative Per- 
fection from whence it has proceeded. 

When do all these duties or offices become 
obligatory, do you ask? Listen to the divine 
Logos, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, 
to come unto me; for of such is the kingdom of 
heaven." Happy, thrice happy is that parent 
who shall teach the lisping babe this simple creed, 
this only creed that angels know. 

A soul, a divine ray, an atom of the infinite All. 
The laws which govern the individualising of such 
a soul, divine ray, or atom, would fill volumes in 
explanation thereof and for such explanation I am 



Introduction ix 

not now prepared. Prominently among the var- 
ious conditions which are requisite for this individ- 
ualising are heredity, nativity, social surroundings, 
religious and scientific education, etc. All souls 
are born into human existence with some degree 
of hereditary, moral, mental, and physical condi- 
tion, but of this we are not now speaking, but 
simply of the primal cause which gives rise to the 
operation of this soul's first energy. Each human 
life possesses an inherent instinct to prolong and 
sustain its human existence. This instinct is 
possessed by all animal and plant life, which fact 
also proves it to be the primal and most essential 
instinctive office of all germ life. It is also self- 
evident that it is a continuous office or duty or 
law of Nature's offspring whether homo, fauna, or 
flora. 

I shall not now discuss the ultimate of the flora 
or fauna, but of man, on his journey towards his 
illimitable goal. Professor Henry Drummond 
wisely states that, material, natural laws are not 
great, only as they are the vanishing lines of the 
avenues to the great eternal order. This is a fixed 
principle in all nature. 

This law of self-preservation in embryo nature 
continues to force its genus to energise in order 
to provide sustenance for physical life until so- 
called death takes place. Death is part of the 
natural law. But does this inherent instinct call 
only for a mere existence? Does not every farmer 



x Introduction 

or florist know that beast, grain, and plant life 
will instinctively grasp and assimilate the most 
suitable nourishment and condition and improve 
in species thereby? 

Scientists must have convinced a reasonable 
mind that the highest type of animal life, outside 
of man, seems scarcely inferior to the lowest 
type of human life and we may in some special 
cases imagine that the man is the inferior in 
intelligence. Still, take man under given condi- 
tions and teachings and he will eventually show 
symptoms of latent aspirations and faculties which 
cannot under any circumstances be aroused in the 
lower orders of animal life. 

There seems to be an altar in this arcanum — a 
human mind — on which the fire of incense is 
always burning, be it ever so low, as in the fetich of 
the most brutal African, or in the cold light of the 
moralist, or in the warm, glowing fire of the unsung, 
slum-working follower of the Master. 

Now, if you agree with me that it is our first 
office to absorb and assimilate for the sustenance 
of our physical existence, and that we instinctively 
select for improvement of species, and that man's 
life is continued after this earth-life, and that 
natural law is only the vanishing lines of eternal 
law or order, is it not evident to you that a man 
must continue this process of absorbing and 
assimilating in order to nourish that portion of his 
self which is to endure and progress in after life 



Introduction xi 

until he reaches that goal to which he is hastening, 
i.e., absolute reunion with the Father? To pre- 
serve his soul, he must needs use the same laws 
as he does for physical existence, else he will not 
fulfil his destiny as a unit of the Eternal Father. 

To do its work and fulfil its destiny, a soul must 
continue to nourish and cultivate that in it which 
it knows will help to further its progress towards 
a perfected life and reunion with the parental 
Perfection. This instinct being inherent in us, we 
unconsciously assume a protectorate over our 
own individualities. But what with our hereditary 
conditions, our social absurdities, and our evil 
environments, together with the ever-present 
influence of the Tempter, we hold in our midst 
not only this holy love-child — instinctive self- 
preservation — born under divinest law, but also 
an unholy thing, a gruesome vampire called self- 
ishness that steals into the sleeping conscience 
and heart, drawing away the pure life-blood and 
leaving its poisonous breath to contaminate and 
destroy. If we slept not we would not allow this 
evil creature to enter and destroy God's image. 

To evolve to the higher life as individual, as a 
nation, as an amalgamation of nations and races, 
we must unite to starve and destroy this awful 
creature. There is no other evil. As you would 
protect your natural body and as you protect all 
profitable fauna and flora from parasitical destroy- 
ers, on the same ground we would be irrational 



xii Introduction 

did we not seek to free our own souls from this 
horrid, evil thing. 

I am confident that I can satisfy the majority 
of minds that all sin and wrong arise from the 
divinest office of self-preservation corrupted into 
that which is termed selfishness with its numerous 
offspring. And that happiness and nobility of 
character and all loving thought and action are 
outgrowths of this law or office when rightfully 
performed. Also that Man's second office, his 
duty and attitude towards other souls, is secondary 
and dependent upon the first one. 

The third office, Man's attitude and duty to- 
wards his holy Parent, is also a natural outgrowth 
of the first and second offices. I shall discuss these 
various offices later, in the order in which they 
occur. 

We are each burdened with the responsibility 
of a personal decision as to whether we will help 
destroy this evil creature — selfishness — and so pre- 
serve our souls. That we do decide is inevitable 
from our being responsible individuals. 

For God has said, "The soul that sinneth shall 
die," and His words fail not. There can be no 
variation in His serial order, nor "Shadow that 
is cast by turning," in His written law. "For 
what is the hope of the godless, though he get 
him gain, when God taketh away his soul?'' 
"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and 
what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do 



Introduction xiii 

justly and to love kindness and to walk humbly 
with thy God?" "He restoreth my soul; He 
guideth me in the paths of righteousness for His 
name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; 
for Thou art with me." 

The Author. 



Part I 

SELF-PRESERVATION: THE 

SOUL'S FIRST OFFICE 



CHAPTER I 

AN ATOM OF THE INFINITE 

"Our little systems have their day: 
They have their day and cease to be: 
They are but broken lights of Thee, 
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they." 

Tennyson. 

"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the 
earth? . . . When the morning stars sang together, and 
all the sons of God shouted for joy?" 

Job xxxviii., 4-7. 

CHRISTIANITY, as well as other religions, 
teaches us of the Fatherhood of the Supreme 
One, whether He be recognised by His worshippers 
as "The One God," "Triune Godhead," "Allah," 
"Brahma," "First Cause," or "Great Spirit." 
At least we may deduce such a doctrine from all 
popular prevailing theories of Religion. 

I shall build my hypothesis from the Christian 
Religion because the supremacy of this religion is, 
to me, a demonstrated fact, not a hysteria, nor a 
hypocrisy, nor yet an enigma, but a radical or 
fundamental ethical system to be first obeyed in its 
simplest sense, then studied, then obeyed, then 
studied, then obeyed, and so on ad infinitum. 

3 



4 He Restoreth My Soul 

This is to me the plan laid down to preserve and 
equip the soul for its illimitable journey. 

We have learned from the revolving heavens and 
the regularly recurring seasons, etc., that God 
moves all things harmoniously and in sequential 
order. The annual seasons approach, advance, 
fulfil, recede, and merge into the next succeeding 
quarter. The nebulous orb forms and solidifies 
sufficiently to beget that vegetable and animal life 
for the sustenance of which it was created. It 
fulfils its round of duty or destiny, then disinte- 
grates and dissipates into space, where it calmly 
floats, waiting for the breath of the Master 
Creator to waft it toward some new-born children 
of the heavens, where it may be once more assimi- 
lated; or, perchance, it may revivify while still 
intact. The beautiful lily has a time to take 
root and strengthen, and a time to bloom in peer- 
less beauty, then again retire to recuperate, and 
so on. The very rocks must necessarily exist under 
this order of growth and decay, or rather, serial 
change. The great oceans have their ebb and 
flow; a human being, or any other animal, begins, 
matures, and passes into silence as to the material 
body; and yet many learned persons think that 
a religion should spring forth perfect and mature, 
and that every individual, per se, of the body of 
followers of that religion should suddenly spring 
into perfection and maturity the moment he em- 
braces that religion. 



An Atom of the Infinite 5 

The Christian Religion has been planted— per- 
fect seed, perfectly planted, has grown and strug- 
gled up through the dark ages, up into the light, 
a strong plant, perfect as the half -grown man or 
plant or orb is perfect, but oh, not yet mature. 
It is planted, formed, *half-grown, but has it 
bloomed into full beauty, or is it yet a fully radiant 
star to lighten the darkness, or is it yet a Man, 
strong, courageous, pure? 

A religion is a principle or system by which a 
soul may begin to live its spiritual life while 
still confined to its material body. Trace all 
religions to their zenith of spiritual life and purity, 
and you will find them good, if not essential. Do 
not judge a religion by its nadir plane. Religion 
is so mixed up with our daily life and national 
affairs that we do not always recognise it in its 
more or less obscured forms, as, for example, in 
politics, which should be a regime to lift the 
individual and national soul Godward. 

Good -meaning, helpless persons will tell you 
complacently that " Politics are so corrupt," etc. 
I say, "Amen." I agree with them intensely, 
but not with their self-righteous complacency. 
Politics is a branch of religion, and each elector 
is a responsible unit of this whole Mammon-ridden 
beast. If you doubt the influential bearing of one 
life, I advise you to observe carefully the influence 
that some one person may exercise over a people 
either for evil or good, or in some matter or opinion 



6 He Restoreth My Soul 

which may not be defined as good or ill. This is 
true of the ordinary politician as well as of the 
great statesman. 

I wish I could make each soul feel, for even 
a few months, as though his decisions of con- 
science ruled the conscience-content of his 
nation. We would not then, for very long, be 
gazing melodramatically into the heavens look- 
ing for the Messiah to appear, coming in the 
clouds with a great host to do for us what we 
are too cowardly or weak or ignorant to do for 
ourselves. 

There is now a battle raging in the people's 
thought-content, and as Nelson's grand appeal 
rang out to the British tars, " England expects to- 
day every man to do his duty," so does our 
Commander who is reviewing and marshalling 
His children for victory call to each one of us to 
do our duty to-day. Did England's sons that day 
sit down in sensuous carousal? History does not 
so state it. They were true to their commander's 
appeal, each man standing at his post and repelling 
the enemy. 

I noticed a caricature recently in a popular mag- 
azine which represented certain troops as unable 
to move because of red-tape bound intricately 
about them. I wanted to cry out to them: 
"Stretch out your arms strongly, men, and 
break your mean bonds. Be free for service 
of God, country, and humanity." I refer to the 



An Atom of the Infinite 7 

picture only as it represents a system and not 
as it represents persons. 

Order is one of God's greater laws, or rather, 
perhaps a law whose office is to combine properly 
other laws. But may we not fear that the beauty 
of order has a nadir as well as a zenith? 

I love people so much that I must find excuse 
for their and my own want of courage. May 
we not stretch out our arms strongly and break 
the trivial bands of departmental red-tape of 
Church, society, press, and commerce, and thus by 
the greater law of serial order grow and mature 
as a people into a higher thought-content with 
the higher active life which is always subsequent 
upon higher conscience- and thought-content? 

On study, I find much that might be quoted 
from God's Word in support of the doctrine of the 
union of the Father with the Son, Jesus Christ, 
and with Christ's followers; or rather, their inter- 
union. I believe that the Christian Church, in 
each of its many sects and denominations, agrees 
on this point, but may we not fear that popular 
Christianity does not bring into prominence the 
vital difference between the merely nominal adop- 
tion into the church of the professing members 
of the various bodies, and the vital union with 
Jesus Christ and the Father as presented in the 
words, Father, Son; Vine, Branches; etc., which 
relationship is the result only of regeneration ? 

We also read much in God's Word of the im- 



8 He Restoreth My Soul 

portance of the Spirit as the regenerating influence 
in such quotations as: "For as many as are led by 
the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rom. 
viii. 14). "The Spirit itself beareth witness with 
our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if 
children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs 
with Christ ..." (vers. 16, 17). "Likewise the 
Spirit also helpeth our infirmities" (ver. 26). 
"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall 
not fulfil the lust of the flesh ' ' (Gal. v. 1 6) . "But 
if ye are led of the Spirit, ye are not under the 
law" (ver. 18). "But the fruit of the Spirit is 
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, 
faithfulness, meekness, self-control" (vers. 22, 23). 
It will thus be seen that the vitality of our souls 
or our regeneration is quite importantly depend- 
ent on the leadings of the Spirit. Jesus Christ 
taught a most rigid doctrine as regards the ac- 
knowledgment of the Spirit's power and guidance, 
which teaching is to an appalling degree ignored 
by popular Christianity. 

The Spirit is clearly described and designated in 
the Scriptures, not merely as an attribute of 
God, but as a personality with a distinct office, 
though frequently, at least, working through 
individual intelligences. A striking example illus- 
trative of this office is to be found in the events 
which occurred on the Day of Pentecost (see 
Acts ii.). Further illustrations of this office 
may be seen in the noticeable allusions to the 



An Atom of the Infinite 9 

ministry of spirits or angels, their teachings, warn- 
ings, vice-authority over mortals, but never over 
Jesus. Also a point worthy of notice is that these 
holy messengers distinctly forbade worship to 
their persons, yet they are often designated as 
the Lord, which merely means, I take it, as in our 
national laws, acting in the King's name. These 
faithful messengers come in the Lord's name, and 
are obedient to Him, and therefore are the Lord 
to us, as they certainly were to the fathers of old. 
It seems to be inherent in us to desire eternal 
life, and sooner or later we become awakened 
to the consciousness of having to take some course 
or stand, so to speak, spiritually, in order to be 
in harmony with God's will. Since I have been 
led to better understand the workings of the 
Spirit, I believe I had this awakening, in part at 
least, when I was a small child playing prayer- 
meeting with my elder sister. I offer these 
personal references only as feeling that my early 
experience may represent that of many another 
young, growing mind, and not in any way as my 
own experience alone. I remember that at one 
particular moment something within me seemed 
to awaken to consciousness which has never since 
been stilled or satisfied. Not that I was a good 
child, for I have a very turbulent record, I am 
told, and I remember it. I never seemed, able 
to recognise why another person's opinion should 
regulate my conduct. Scenes were not infrequent. 



io He Res tore th My Soul 

I remember myself readily loving people, except 
those whom I thought in my childish way hypo- 
critical. I always adored justice, kindness, and 
truth, and practised them as my ability and 
moral strength admitted. As I grew older, I 
became a member of a Christian church, worked 
therein as best I could, and horrified some of 
my dear friends by my unconventional conduct. 
I easily forgave my few enemies from my very 
heart. I have believed in and practised prayer in 
a degree which amounts to tests of God's promises 
and of His will concerning me. My faith in the 
great undiscoverable Good was invincible, though 
later on, in maturer life, it was, I may say, tried 
by Satan himself. The result of this fiery trial 
has been that I now love and adore my Heavenly 
Father as an infant loves its gentle, loving mother 
who is always kind and careful with it. I love our 
Saviour, the Christ, as One who knows my every 
sorrow and gladness and feels them all. I recog- 
nise in Him One who has authority to send the 
Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Ghost 
to us to minister to our needs as babes in Christ. 

To resume my childhood experiences. I re- 
member trying to draw the meaning from the 
religious teaching that I received so liberally at 
church, Sabbath school, and in a Christian home. 
I would think like this : " God made me, and I must 
try to be good, for He will judge me after I die 
before millions of people, and everybody will tell 



An Atom of the Infinite n 

everything bad and good about me, and God [and 
I was glad of this] would know whether they 
told the truth or not." And I understood that 
if God thought I was good enough, I could go 
to heaven, and we in heaven would all sit in rows, 
with white flowing robes on, and hold palm-leaf 
fans in our hands and play harps and sing. And I 
used to think that this would be beautiful, as I was 
very fond of music and singing. But I wondered 
sometimes if we should not grow weary of it. I 
received the idea somehow that there were no 
backs to the seats, and that they were very hard. 
I thought much like this, until I read a little book 
called The Gates Ajar after which I hoped we 
might have a change sometimes, that is, if I were 
fortunate enough to be sent to heaven. 

I believed that if I was not quite good enough, 
and I was very nervous about the dividing line, 
I would be cast out into a big, black pit, at the 
bottom of which a continual fire was burning, and 
I would n't ever finish burning. Then I would 
try to love God more, but I found this impossible, 
because I was so afraid of Him, and of that awful 
pit. While very young I had learned to wonder 
at God's purpose in creating us, and I sincerely 
regretted that He had made me, as my existence 
seemed to serve no useful end and my future 
seemed uncertain and undefined. 

As I reached maturity, I added to my view 
of Christianity that it did not matter so much 



12 He Restoreth My Soul 

what one did, but that we must believe in Jesus 
Christ and that He died for us. I did not under- 
stand in what sense He died for us, but I had some 
faith in God's goodness and believed it in advance 
of evidence. With me, the faith of my fathers was, 
as it were, on trial, an experience which must be 
common to all in whom is eventually implanted 
the Christ life. I believed from teaching and 
habit that the Scriptures were true. The Script- 
ures taught us of Christ's death for us ; so that 
was easy, and I was not so much afraid of ever- 
lasting punishment after that. As time passed, 
it dawned on my mind that all nominal Christians 
gave their intellectual assent to the doctrine of 
hell and of the historic Christ because they believed 
it to be taught in the Scriptures. This accounted 
to my reason for the nonchalance of merely 
professing Chris tia as. 

Later on, I began to weigh popular Christianity 
in the balance and found it wanting, for it did not 
practically teach that a man is more than gold, 
and it did not teach practically Christ's political 
economy. I read the often quoted texts: "God so 
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life"; also, "Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. " 
I read of Christ's teaching: "A new command- 
ment I give unto you, That ye love one another; 
as I have loved you, that ye also love one another " ; 



An Atom of the Infinite 13 

and His advice to the rich young man to go sell 
his goods to feed the poor and to take up the cross 
and follow Him. I read of the kindly acceptance 
of the widow's mite, of Christ's healing the sick 
without exacting reward, and of doing good every 
day. I read the Sermon on the Mount carefully. 
I read of His teachings as touching the weak and 
erring ones. I read of His attack on the Church 
of His day, bidding the people follow His teaching, 
but not the practice or example of their teachers, 
because, Christ explains, they bind burdens heavy 
to be borne, and wear broad phylacteries and love 
the uppermost seats in the synagogue. He empha- 
sises His strong disapproval of them by calling 
them " whited sepulchres, " " generation of vipers, " 
and finishes with that touching burst of pathos 
and sorrow, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that 
killest the prophets, and stonest them which are 
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered 
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth 
her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. 
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate! 
For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, 
till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the 
name of the Lord." I read of the awful verdict 
against those persons who gave Him no drink, 
who had plenty yet clothed Him not, who visited 
Him not in sickness nor in prison. I read of these 
persons in their terror asking: "Lord, when saw 
we Thee in need and ministered not unto Thee?" 



14 He Restoreth My Soul 

Then came that solemn answer: "Inasmuch as ye 
did it not unto one of the least of these, ye did 
it not unto Me." "Not every one that sayeth 
unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the King- 
dom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of 
My father which is in heaven/' "I never knew 
you; depart from Me." 

I said in my heart: "Who of us shall stand 
before this Judge?" for I think I hear Him saying: 
"If ye loved Me, ye would have kept My com- 
mandments; he that keepeth them, he it is that 
loveth Me; and he that loveth Me not keepeth 
not My sayings, and the word that ye hear is not 
Mine, but the Father's that sent Me." "Simon, 
son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? Yea, Lord. 
Then feed My lambs." I read that "the wages 
of sin is death." So I concluded that to have a 
saving belief in Christ was to keep His sayings. 
I looked at the great Church in its individuality, 
and I said in my heart: Who of us shall stand 
before this crucial fire? I felt that many were 
called but few were chosen. 

Do you feel that it is a grand privilege to have 
been brought into human existence ; to feel your- 
self a unit and that unit living through eternal 
ages ; to know yourself a given point in boundless 
space; to know yourself a tiny dynamo in the 
great universal power-house? I have not striven 
in this chapter to teach a theology, but to merely 
draw from science and religion, as I am led to see 



An Atom of the Infinite 15 

it, that it is a divine and glorious duty to assume 
a protectorate over your own personality, and 
to so nourish the soul that it shall fulfil its destiny 
as an immortal traveller, and that no one shall 
be able to "work out his own salvation" unless 
he do it on the first principles which Christ has 
laid down. It horrifies me to hear both infidels 
and professing Christians so belittle this infinite 
privilege — to live. 

I would not, nay could not, be a pessimist. 
Elijah in despair, not unmixed with self -righteous- 
ness, wailed forth his lament, "I, even I only, 
am left." But the Lord had yet seven thousand 
that had not bowed the knee to Baal. 

When the Elijahs of to-day shall look around 
and wail forth their arrogant despair and dismay, 
"I, even I alone, am left," they shall hear that 
Voice of assurance and authority say: "There 
is still the school of the prophets. I have with 
Me still seven thousand in Israel who have not 
bowed the knee to Baal, but who worship at a 
faith's pure shrine — these are Mine. " 

The time is near at hand, nay, is already here, 
when we shall be sifted as wheat, not by our 
mystifying creeds, but by the burning questions 
of the day. We are judging and sifting ourselves. 
Let , us be warned of the responsibility of our 
position. Every decision we give, every ballot we 
mark, every bargain we make, is a move in this 
sifting process. Let us stand with our heads 



16 He Restoreth My Soul 

uncovered before the Holy Spirit, that we may 
receive His teaching, and with our souls bared 
before Christ Jesus, ready to receive His bene- 
diction. For we know that if we do not receive 
Christ's " Well done, good and faithful servant," 
we must receive His " Depart from Me, I never 
knew you." 

Shall a man live again or die as the ox? I 
answer, we may live as the hungry beast, but we 
shall surely pass out of our material bodies as 
living souls to meet an infinitely long future of 
either holy advance or base retreat, if we continue 
rebellious. If a man does not quite understand 
the doctrines of Christianity, or it comes not 
to his belief that the Christian religion is true or 
perfectly taught, or if he unduly criticise our 
Scriptures, shall our Heavenly Father, in His 
great kindness and justice, cast this mystified 
one into consuming torture? Note what our 
late Poet Laureate says of honest doubt — 

"Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds, 
At last he beat his music out. 
There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
Believe me, than in half the creeds. 

"He fought his doubts and gathered strength, 
He would not make his judgment blind, 
He faced the spectres of the mind 
And laid them: thus he came at length 

"To find a stronger faith his own; 
And Power was with him in the night, 
Which makes the darkness and the light, 
And dwells not in the light alone, 



An Atom of the Infinite 17 

"But in the darkness and the cloud . . ." 

Who shall judge of the future of a human soul? 
We have the analogous teachings of Nature to 
prove that a soul must be nourished with suitable 
food if its life is to endure. Jesus the Christ tells 
us that He is the Bread of Life and the Water of 
Life. He was only Christ as He represented 
Christ-hood, and we are Christians only as we 
endeavour, be it ever so weakly, to represent that 
Christ-hood as it was shown through Him. Never 
shall we obtain eternal life because we believe in 
a certain formula of Jesus Christ's birth, active 
ministry, death by crucifixion, resurrection, etc. 

I ask each of you who believe yourselves to be 
Christians to place yourselves each before the 
tribunal of Christ's sayings. We must all ulti- 
mately do so. We shall acquit or convict our- 
selves, and the Triune God-head shall witness 
our decision. We may deceive one another, but 
we cannot deceive God. 

As a Unit, an Ego, I pray of you to be honest, 
courageous, wise, and to feel the dignity of your 
position. Do not be a grovelling worm or as the 
dumb driven ox, but arise to the position of 

II our Image, " with the light of heaven in your eye. 
Be "a child of the King," and sing with one of 
our inspired poets 1 — 

1 Frances R. Havergal. 



1 8 He Restoreth My Soul 

"Near after distant, gleam after gloom, 
Love after loneliness, life after tomb; 
After long agony, rapture of bliss, 
Right was the pathway, leading to this." 

Sometime, somewhere, somehow, we know our 
souls shall echo the strain, "Right was the path- 
way, leading to this." "Let integrity and up- 
rightness preserve me" (Ps. xxv. 21) on my 
journey as a soul. "When Jesus knew in Himself 
that His disciples murmured at it, He said unto 
them, Doth this offend you? ... It is the 
Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing ; 
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, 
and they are life" (John vi. 61, 63). "I am the 
way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh 
unto the Father, but by Me" (John xiv. 6). "I 
came forth from the Father, and am come into 
the world : again, I leave the world, and go to the 
Father" (John xvi. 28). "And if I go to prepare 
a place for you, I will come again and take you 
unto Myself, that where I am ye may be also" 
(John xiv. 3). 

' ' Holy, holy, holy ! Though the darkness hide Thee, 
Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see; 
Only Thou art holy: There is none beside Thee 
Perfect in power and love and purity. 

1 ' Holy, holy, holy ! Lord God Almighty ! 
All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth and sky 

and sea; 
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, 
God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity." 



Part II 
ATTITUDE TOWARDS ONE 
ANOTHER: THE SOUL'S SECOND 
OFFICE 



19 



CHAPTER II 

WHAT LACK I YET ? 

"The young man saith unto him, All these things have 
I observed: what lack I yet? . . . But when the young 
man heard the saying, he went away sorrowful." 

Matthew xix. 20-22. 

"To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that man 
which is of the earth, may be terrible no more." 

Psalm x. 18 (R.V.). 

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born 
of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom 
of God." John iii. 5. 

IN this part of our work the object is the explan- 
ation of the second office of a soul, viz., 
its attitude towards other souls by whom it is 
surrounded and with whom it comes in contact. 

If I introduce the person of Jesus it is not that 
I shall in the following pages try to portray His 
life and teaching per se, but that I desire rather 
that He be kept in the reader's mind as an ever- 
present Ideal, by which we may draw comparisons 
between His attitude and our own. 

So, at the outset, I wish to refer to His attitude 
towards His brothers of the race to find the key to 
open the guide-book of our own actions towards 



22 He Restoreth My Soul 

one another. For it is impossible for us, as ra- 
tional, social beings, to escape the duties involved 
in the second office. The question, therefore, re- 
solves itself into this: "How shall we, why should 
we, follow Him in this?" 

Is a written code binding simply because it is 
written, or was it made binding previously and 
then preserved in the written form to make it more 
easily understood, borne in mind, and enforced? 
Thus the written law is not the law in reality, but 
a copy of judicial decisions which are agreed 
upon, by a selected company of men, as being 
essential to promote national or civic welfare. 

Jesus was called the Word. The Word existed 
always, but Jesus as Jesus did not exist always. 
God had always been and is ever teaching of 
His law a little here, a little there, line upon line, 
precept upon precept. But in the fulness of 
time He sent His only begotten Son to redeem 
the world from sin. This was the incarnate Word, 
the incarnate Law, God's judicial decision being 
behind it. That was and is Jesus, our Christ. 
What He taught us is law, not because He, as the 
Word, said it only, but because God said it first 
as a result of His perfect, judicial decision. 
Christ Jesus is the Great Father's written Law 
or incarnate Word, just as the printed or written 
copy of the judicial decision is an incarnation of 
the thoughtful decisions of this company of men. 
So Christ's law or word is binding and should be 



What Lack I Yet? 23 

the aspiration of our highest perfection. Thus the 
"Why should we follow Him?" is answered. 

God has taught morality to all people at all 
times. Ethics vary as the morale of a civilisation 
varies. A people receive as they absorb and 
assimilate. A high morale demands a high ethic. 
God always supplies reasonable demand. This 
part of the work might have been finished without 
ever touching on a higher religious state than 
morality, were it not that our civilisation is in the 
condition in which both simple morality and also 
Christianity are needed. I would have each person 
first a moralist then a Christian. I would have 
every person live a very sincere, moral life in the 
first place and a very sincere Christian life in the 
second or ultimate place. To any objection that 
may be offered as to why morality is placed first, 
I would answer that a sense of moral degradation 
or sinfulness combined with a desire for better- 
ment and growth must necessarily pass through 
this fringe or borderland of Christianity in order 
to reach it. 

Speaking broadly, it seems to me that a religion 
whose tenets are simply a belief and trust in the 
One Supreme Father as God, and in the brother- 
hood of humanity, as His children, with a kindly 
equality of feeling and generosity of purpose to- 
wards one another, with an inward consciousness 
that a mean or unkind action or thought is 
beneath the dignity and education or culture of 



24 He Restoreth My Soul 

a modern up-to-date man or woman, is the 
religion for to-day. And, as we note the many 
reformatory movements, may we not infer that 
the world- thought is already in this most desirable, 
because preparatory, phase of advancement, and 
will soon be led to see the need of the higher life 
as taught by our Redeemer? May we not hope 
that the prophecy will soon be fulfilled, in its 
entirety, that, "The people which sat in darkness 
saw a great light, and to them which sat in the 
region and shadow of death, to them did light 
spring up." To live even this simple doctrine 
really well, it is necessary to study the causes and 
effects of the various classes of customs and habits 
which prevail and this, in turn, is secured by 
considering carefully the many needs of the 
body and mind, with a view to their moral ele- 
vation, and may be termed the study of practical 
ethics. 

Thus there seems to me to be two stages of the 
merely moral life, the one being easier and more 
selfish than the other. In the one stage the individ- 
ual seeks by careful observance of certain rules 
of conduct and by control of mind over desire 
and appetite to live a comparatively just, clean, 
and honest life. He will not throw temptation in 
another's way to cause him to stumble, because 
that would be incompatible with his system of 
morality. He will meet an avaricious person 
with business tact and diplomacy in order to 



What Lack I Yet? 25 

counteract his covetous desires in so far as they 
affect injuriously himself, the moralist. If he 
meet a victim of intemperance, he would violate 
his moral sense of rectitude and dignity were 
he to offer him drink, and thus contribute to the 
drunkard's downfall. If a man take another's 
life, our moralist would be consistent with his 
creed to confine the offender in prison, in order to 
ensure his own safety and that of other people. 
So with theft and lawlessness of all kinds, pre- 
vention of a repetition of these acts would be 
consistent with the spirit of this first phase of 
morality. 

Our first moralist, however, maintains not only a 
negative attitude to the law of right, but a posi- 
tive attitude as well, always providing it serves his 
own ends. Therefore he will protect and be 
courteous to all women because his own mother, 
wife, and sister must be protected. Little children 
will have his care, training, and education that they 
may supply succeeding decades with intelligent, 
law-abiding citizens, and this is well. This man 
will obey the civic and national laws without much 
questioning. In the world's estimation, such a 
man will have an honourable, successful life, 
and probably a much respected old age. In this 
connection it may be stated that this manner of 
living is an immediate outgrowth of the first office 
of the soul, viz., self-preservation, and not of the 
second. 



26 He Restoreth My Soul 

The second and more difficult phase of morality- 
is of a less negative character. In this stage a man 
not only refrains from these unholy and vicious 
appetites and dishonest desire for gain, but he 
will try to win others to a purer life by telling them 
of his own personal feeling of inward comfort and 
dignity as a result of his own better state of living. 
He will try to teach his greedy, grasping neighbour 
some of the simple lessons of the brotherhood of 
man. He is aggressive and will therefore try to 
rectify iniquitous laws and customs. He will 
not only be courteous to woman and careful for 
children, but he will make strenuous efforts to 
improve the various operative systems, so all 
women may exist as women and not as driven 
beasts, and so that all children may thrive and 
grow up as intelligent, healthy citizens. He 
will endeavour to close the "sweat shops" and 
factories to women and children until every 
healthy man in the country has regular well-paid 
labour provided for him and until the children 
are at school and the wives and mothers at home, 
with those women who must work publicly filling 
lighter, more womanly situations. With woman's 
clamour for her so-called "Rights," our moralist 
has very little sympathy, and he deplores the 
spirit of money-greed and the desire to compete 
with men in the various business walks of life 
which characterise the women of to-day, because 
of the check that such a spirit is to his hoped-for 



What Lack I Yet? 27 

humanitarianism of the future. He recognises 
the fact that, for the benefit of the coming race, the 
female part of the population should receive 
very special consideration, and I think scientists, 
sociologists, physicians, clergymen, and educators 
generally will endorse this opinion. He believes 
that few women rise to genius because God designs 
most of them to be mothers, and that hence a 
nation's duty is to fit its daughters to be noble, 
intelligent, well- trained mothers and home teachers 
of the race. He views with satisfaction the various 
domestic training schools and kindred clubs which 
are being organised among women, and regards 
them as signs of a hopeful awakening. To 
give effect to these institutions, as well as for 
other considerations, he would have our daughters 
withdraw, as far as possible, from business and 
labour competition, leaving the field to their 
future husbands and sons and thus having both 
means and leisure at their disposal to prepare them- 
selves for a happy, noble wifehood and mother- 
hood. And finally, our moralist regards with deep 
regret and indignation the rapid increase of our 
modern Herods — the capitalists and millionaires — 
multiplying and fattening, as they are, at the 
expense of the life-blood of the masses, and trusts 
that this and all like abuses may be entirely swept 
away and matters so adjusted that the economic 
conditions of the next generation may be upon a 
sounder and more rational basis. 



28 He Restoreth My Soul 

These are only sketches of different conceptions, 
the details of any one of which would fill many 
volumes, and indeed have rilled many, many 
volumes. I have introduced the correction of the 
various wrongs mentioned, which exist as the 
tenets of the higher morality to which we have 
referred, and I see no reason why nearly all 
persons of rational mind could not attain to this 
degree of right living, and indeed I believe all 
but a comparative few would be glad to do so 
could they be assured that the majority of their 
fellows were also endeavouring to reach it. This 
is far too , low an ideal for a Christian man or 
woman since it is, in essence, simply prudence or 
refined worldliness, but you will grant that it is 
very good indeed as a means towards making 
modern life endurable to the masses. This ideal 
through good is only within the fringe or border- 
land of Christianity, as before noted. One would 
expect this standard of ethics to be a constituent 
part of civilisation — a prudent supply for the 
general need. 

Emerson says that, " Prudence is the virtue of 
the senses. It is the science of appearances. It 
is the outmost action of the inward life. It is God 
taking thought for oxen. It moves matter after 
the laws of matter. It is content to seek health of 
body by complying with physical conditions, and 
health of mind by the laws of intellect." He says 
in another place that "all the virtues range them- 



What Lack I Yet? 29 

selves on the side of prudence, or the art of securing 
a present well-being." This prudence would be 
the issue, if justice and kind thoughtfulness were 
exercised for the welfare of the individual. A 
high degree of morality is only prudence. " Pru- 
dence is the virtue of the senses." Then we must 
find it to be true that a person who is not highly 
moral is not prudent and a person who is not pru- 
dent has not the virtue of the senses. In the 
degree that he is moral are his senses virtuous, is 
he sane — almost the same thing. 

Ruskin says, "The very word virtue means not 
conduct but strength, vital energy in the heart." 
Therefore morality or prudence is moral or 
prudent as it is virtuous or strong in vital energy. 
Here seems to be the clue by which we may 
arrive at an approximately correct conclusion as 
to the character of the individual-spirit as well as 
of the world-spirit at large. This mode of measur- 
ing the inner strength or vital energy by outward 
appearances was recognised by our Lord when 
He said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." 
Therefore we feel justified in claiming that when 
we see an act that is unworthy of a virtuous 
person or people we may be assured that it may 
be traced back, perhaps far back, to some starting- 
point, and that starting-point we shall surely find 
lacking in vital energy. We must trace every 
act, system, or expression of thought back to its 
starting-point if we would understand the strength 



30 He Restoreth My Soul 

or weakness of this starting-point as it is affected 
by the law of life or self-preservation or by the law 
of destruction or selfishness. 

The following illustration, though apparently 
trivial in itself, will, I believe, prove to be approxi- 
mately the history of every act of every person as 
well as of all national and international acts. The 
door-bell rings and my ear nerves carry the news 
to the head office, the brain. My "self" that 
presides at the head office resolves to step to the 
door to open it to see who is there. Nerve 
messages are sent swiftly over the system ordering 
the whole body to move toward the door. On 
opening the door I find a friend standing there 
who addresses me. My eye and ear nerves again 
conduct the news to the central office. My ' ' self ' ' 
dictates to smile and chat. In an instant out 
comes the word of welcome. My friend's "self" 
knows by these that I am pleased to see him. 
All this, I take it, is done without realising that 
any discussion is being carried on or any arguments 
are being used between me and my "self" to 
bring my "self" to any conclusions about going to 
the door, or about my manner of greeting my 
friend. But did I decide or arrive at such conclu- 
sions? If so, when and how? I did decide. A 
mental decision or conclusion must be preceded 
by process of reasoning. I go to the door because 
I have learned previously that, when the bell 
rings, some person is outside waiting to be ad- 



What Lack I Yet? 31 

mitted or to be spoken to. I welcome my friend 
because I have known him and have found him 
congenial company and have confidence in him, etc. 
It has taken me perhaps months or years, or 
maybe only a moment, to arrive at this conclusion. 
I consider that it is my mind which has arrived 
at this admiration or confidence, on the basis of a 
certain suitability to my needs and to his needs. 
The self interest in my nature impels me to open 
the door, hoping thereby to admit a friend or 
speak to some person who will supply my needs 
in some way, or, vice versa, whose needs I shall 
supply and thus benefit not only the person but 
myself as well by reflex action. Self interest also 
impels me to use my friend kindly, or I shall grieve 
him and in time perhaps lose his friendship. So 
this loom, the mind, weaves with almost automatic 
motion as well as with faultless precision these 
conclusions from previously accumulated data. 
Prudence or morality sits at the loom and weaves 
from the data just whatever patterns are dictated 
by the Ego. And as the moral quality of the 
Ego varies and as the combinations of the data 
vary so will the patterns woven vary. 

In the foregoing illustration it will be seen that 
the sketch is merely meant to represent the 
mechanical movement of an act as traced to its 
origin, and thence to its issue. We see from it 
that the deciding impetus is vested in the Ego, 
but that the act itself is almost colourless. In the 



32 He Restoreth My Soul 

following illustration we would present the import- 
ance of the character of the Ego, as that is the 
pivot, so to speak, upon which the quality of our 
conduct rests. Our conduct is prudent and life- 
preserving or foolish and destructive according 
to the character of the Ego. If the body is in 
health, the muscles will respond in obedience to 
the nerves whether the mandate be the action 
or the response of a few muscles or of many. 
The nerves will receive and • carry the data to 
the mind and when the decision is given them 
by the Ego, will hurry away to the different 
muscles and sets of muscles to deliver it. The 
mind or intellect weaves its arguments quickly 
from past and present data, but waits for the 
decision of the umpire before it gives answer 
to the messengers. The character of that answer 
depends on the virtue or ''strength of vital energy 
in the heart" or central deciding point, or, in other 
words, on a person's moral status. How often 
we see one of these bodies standing quietly waiting 
the result of a decision from its Ego with muscles 
all ready. The mind has woven out, " serve 
'one another." ' The nerves and muscles stand 
alert and erect, noble and reasonable. After a 
moment of struggle with the pure soul behind the 
Ego, the Ego gives out the mandate, "No, not 
'one another,' but 'self.' " Collapse! This fail- 
ure of the Ego to respond to the reasonable 
evidence of the mind with righteous decision 



What Lack I Yet? 33 

may have its counterpart in a person or nation 
who is looked upon as being invulnerable but 
who, like Achilles in his armour, has a faulty spot 
in his heel where the enemy, Selfishness, may enter 
his arrow, as did Paris of Troy in the heel of our 
loved hero of classic story. 

Did you ever see a man, woman, or child whose 
Ego has just made a mean decision of this sort, 
stand erect and look noble and stately? The 
body collapses in very shame at its master. A 
guilty mind tells the tale through the movements 
and attitude of the body. Eyes, mouth, hands, 
feet, carriage, all tell it directly or indirectly. 
Therefore I hold that a distinctively moral life 
is only prudence for the individual self and there- 
fore also for the "tribal self." It is very good, 
but it is only a degree of civilisation. Every 
teaching or ethic that is good for the human 
body as an individual is good for the whole human 
body or the great tribal racial self. Every firm, 
corporation, society, government, nation, or any 
community of persons with a common interest or 
design is an example of these illustrations. If 
the appearance is satisfactory the heart centre is 
strong, if unsatisfactory, weak. 

God is life or existence. His great principles are 
universal and life-producing and life-preserving. 
We should study the secrets of His harmonies in 
their measureless effects as noted in the great forces, 
but we should also seek to note His principles as 



34 He Restoreth My Soul 

found in familiar and lowly objects. We may- 
learn many a lesson of altruism from animal 
life, and that God breathes out many a lesson 
from varied nature that may be helpful to us in our 
intercourse with our fellow human beings and in 
our responsibilities toward one another. How 
often we must blush at "man's inhumanity to 
man"! We look around at Nature and feel, at 
times, like crying aloud, "Oh God, I see Thee 
everywhere and in everything, and all, save man, 
obey Thy voice." We find simple laws governing 
even plant life from which we may take lessons for 
our temporal as well as spiritual betterment. 
Beasts, birds, and plants, rocks, hills and vaulted 
sky, are they not all the voice of God to us? 
Do they not tell us of His minute care for each 
and for all? If we are to live well here, we must 
learn His ways, and we must certainly learn from 
Him if we would aspire to live in the glorious 
eternity. 

Do not despise a lesson even if you learn it in 
a lowly form. We do not wish to introduce the 
worship of cat or beast of any kind, but I have 
personally noted conduct amongst the lower 
animals that would put the most of us to blush 
in the expression of sympathy and good sense. 
Did you ever watch a family of happy, frolicsome 
kittens in their charming and divinely innocent 
sport? Have you observed the mother cat care 
for and patiently train them for mature cat life? 



What Lack I Yet? 35 

Did you ever see the kindly, domestic cow come 
lowing up from pasture heavily laden with 
Nature's perfect food for yourself and family? 
Have you loved her in her lowly kindness? If 
not, why not? I presume you have many times 
ridden behind the noble, majestic horse. Have 
you noticed his kindly patience and his love for 
his master, even though that master be a brutal 
one at times? Poor, weary horse! He is a great 
burden-bearer, so kind, so patient, so obedient, 
usually. Do you see nothing divine in him? If 
not, why not? Did you ever have a dog love 
you? If so, did he ever come and tenderly lick 
your hand when he saw you in sorrow and loneli- 
ness? Can you see no divine compassion in 
him? 

The Master said, "Now learn a parable of the 
fig-tree." He was ever using familiar objects, not 
only as illustrations to teach distinctively spiritual 
truth, but also to teach the natural truth of self- 
preservation by enforcing the lesson of the obliga- 
tion of His hearers to the organic and inorganic life 
about them and, above all, to one another as hu- 
man beings. Besides broadening and clarifying 
our views as to our obligations to these voices of 
nature as well as to our fellow human beings, by 
His illustrations, I believe the Master desired 
further to show that Nature manifests the highest 
degree of wisdom by her artless, winsome, fearless 
obedience to law, and to imply that the counter- 



36 He Restoreth My Soul 

part of nature, in her obedience, has never been 
reached by man — Himself excepted. 

We have but one Ideal — Jesus — and we find Him 
constantly typified in the Scriptures by natural 
objects, animate and inanimate. He is desig- 
nated as the Lamb of God and as the Lion of the 
Tribe of Judah. He is symbolised by the brazen 
serpent in the wilderness. The offering of His 
life was typified by the offering of the various 
sacrifices. There must have been the idea of 
divinity presented, at least esoterically, by these 
sacrifices, and, by the way, is not all idea of 
divinity essentially esoteric? It is consequently 
only the small, inner circle who really see God in 
His creatures, and yet all may see Him. He is 
within the reach and grasp of all. When the 
idea of divinity in these offerings was lost sight 
of they became a mere fetish in character and 
as such God could not accept of them. Hear 
Him: "Your appointed feasts my soul hateth; 
they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to 
bear them." Why did God institute the service 
of sacrifices and then loathe them? Because 
the spiritual or esoteric meaning of the sacrifices 
became obscured by the introduction of a material 
idea which corrupted them and made them loath- 
some to purity. God honoured the offerings but 
abhorred man's wilful misconception and mis- 
application of His purpose concerning them. 
Small wonder that both primitive and decaying 



What Lack I Yet? 37 

peoples worship God as represented by physical 
life and form, brute, bird, and plant, as they find 
all the human characteristics displayed by them 
and almost entirely without the perverted ex- 
aggerations found in human beings. Cruelty, 
lust, intemperance, and arrogance are perverted 
exaggerations of lawful instincts which are little 
found in domesticated animals, and I grieve that 
we cannot say the same of civilised men and 
women. Now what is the lesson in all this for 
us? Surely it is that not only were the Jews 
guilty of this decline from the spiritual to the 
material standard, but we find on every side to- 
day this same divergence from the true way of life 
by heaping up material riches instead of searching 
for and securing spiritual riches. It is the outer 
appearance of our inner lack of strength or virtue. 
And as the decline of the Jew both as a nation and 
as an individual dates from his spiritual decadence, 
so will it be with us. 

Then we have the lesson of the hopeful outlook 
in the condition foretold of the kingdom of 
heaven upon earth when the calf and the young lion 
shall lie down together — the calf being beside the 
lion and not inside him. 

God once honoured the much derided ass by 
showing him an angel and by putting words of 
reproof into his mouth. We should be very 
careful what or whom we deride or despise, for 
God may choose a very humble instrument to 



38 He Restoreth My Soul 

confound or reprove a popular but much tempted 
prophet, or He may choose it to give a message 
to the world. 

Is God in the fig-tree, in the bruised reed, in 
the lily of the field, the wormwood, the wheat, 
the olive, the palm, the almond, the balm, and the 
brier, or are these inert and voiceless? If so 
would the Master be symbolised to us as the Rose 
of Sharon and the lily of the valley? Has God 
no voice in the everlasting hills and rocks? You 
value the solidity and utility of the rock. You 
must see the value of the lessons deduced from 
the laws of crystallisation or the value of united 
effort. One rising nation has evidently discovered 
the lesson which the grand old rock on which she 
first tasted God's freedom could have taught her. 
I think that the spirit of the old rock must have 
sung to her and that the inarticulate song must 
have crept into her soul for on her escutcheon 
is inscribed the motto, U E pluribus unurn." 

Have the hills and mountain -tops no message 
from the Infinite to you? Does not the recorded 
fact that the children of Israel were much more 
successful against their enemies while on the 
hills suggest to you the lesson that Christ's 
followers are more successful against their spiritual 
enemies while living the higher life, nearer the 
Light, for God is light, the Sun of Righteousness? 
There is a helpful lesson for us in the fact of the 
difficulty of attaining the mountain-top, in the 



What Lack I Yet? 39 

inability of the many to exist in that altitude 
because of the rarity of the atmosphere, and in the 
broad views to be obtained from these altitudes. 
There is also the lesson of the valley where the 
sinful are safer from defeat, where the people dwell 
in content, through ignorance, in the enfolding 
embrace of miasmatic vapours. There is the 
lesson too of the peaceful sweet valley where some 
souls nestle cosily beside living streams flowing 
through fertile plains. 

The mystic Deborah sings, "They fought from 
heaven; the stars in their courses fought against 
Sisera." 

The profound and argumentative book of Job 
tells us that when the corner stone of the earth 
was laid the morning stars sang for joy, and directs 
our attention to the sweet influences of Pleiades. 
Job tells us that God told him this out of the 
whirlwind. 

Has the blue vault above us no story to tell? 
Have the stars in their wondrous courses no holy 
hymn to chant? Has the study of the prismatic 
light with its trio of blue, red, and yellow told 
you no secrets of the Sun of Righteousness? Has 
the story of the reflection of these triune primary 
rays with their triune secondary rays combining 
to form the Seventh, or perfect white light told 
you no secret of a mystic, triune Godhead? Does 
it not also teach us of our duties regarding the 
reflection of the rays of the Sun of Righteousness? 



40 He Restoreth My Soul 

Does not the cause of blackness as opposed to 
that of whiteness suggest to us the doctrine of evil 
as opposed to good? 

I have often desired to find some one whose mind 
is stored with scientific knowledge to seek to 
apply each great principle with its causes and 
effects to the individual spiritual life. We already 
owe Professor Henry Drummond and some others 
much in this way. 

We have been assuring ourselves, as we proceed, 
that a high morality is only prudence, that pru- 
dence is the virtue of the senses, that virtue is 
strength, that virtue is vital energy in the heart 
or central guiding point. We have illustrated 
from our nervous and muscular systems how 
dependent is success on the central guiding point. 
We hold that no firm is successful unless the 
central powers of the firm be capable of success. 
We hold that the members of corporations will 
present to us the main desire and aim of these 
corporations. We hold that a Christian organisa- 
tion will reflect the soul and not the ritual of that 
organisation. The spirit of a political party will 
sooner or later reveal itself through its minions. 
A nation's people will be courageous or timid, 
and cowardly or just, as they read the strength or 
vital energy in the heart or central guiding point 
of that nation. 

There is no end to the making of books. Pam- 
phlets, periodicals, and newspapers are so easily 



What Lack I Yet? 41 

accessible that we almost weary of them. There 
is no end of books teaching us how good we 
ought to be and how delightful a state it would be 
if we were good. But the great fact remains that 
we are not good, no not one. Why are we not 
good? Why are we not strong in vital energy? 
There must be a deep-seated reason or cause for 
this. Many of us earnestly seek to be good, but, 
as Paul says, "For the good which I would I do 
not; but the evil which I would not, that I prac- 
tise. O wretched man that I am! Who shall 
deliver me out of the body of this death?" I 
think I hear some ease-loving soul murmur in a 
plaintive whine, "Well, if we cannot be good, why 
we cannot, and that settles it for me." Yes, 
it settles it for you unless you change your non- 
chalant attitude. Listen to St. Paul again. He 
is aged now. He is near the goal. He will soon 
receive the palm. He is sure of it. Hear him: 
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the 
course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is 
laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at 
that day : and not only to me, but also to all them 
that have loved His appearing." 

I think I hear another brave, battling soul cry 
out in anguish, "O God, how I have fought the 
battle of life, fought for bread for the babes, fought 
for principles. It has been little but fighting 
for me, and I fear death as though it were the 



42 He Restoreth My Soul 

climax of disaster. I see no palm. I attend 
church and am even a member, but oh, the dread of 
leaving the family to possible want, and the dread 
of meeting my God! I have fought hard and 
endured bravely." I will ask you only one ques- 
tion, my most unfortunate friend. Did you fight 
alone, or did you fight with the consciousness of 
the Presence about you? 

Another one will say, "It makes one so con- 
spicuous to have set principles. One is obliged 
to suffer a species of ostracism. I think it unwise 
to stir up feeling of this kind. You know the old 
adage, 'When we are in Rome, we must do as 
the Romans do.' " Yes, we answer, but that is 
not a star adage, it is only a comet. It has a 
beautiful coma, and brilliancy follows in its 
trail. But while the comet may be merely useless 
the adage is very baneful in its influence as its 
essence is our old familiar enemy — self. I hope 
that Dante did not have you in his mind's eye 
when he wrote these words descriptive of one class 
that he found in his weird travels: "This 
miserable fate suffer the wretched souls of those 
who lived without blame or praise, with that 
ill band of angels mixed, who nor rebellious proved, 
nor yet were true to God, but for themselves were 
only. From his bounds Heaven drove them forth 
not to impair his lustre, nor the depths of Hell 
receives them lest the accursed tribe should glory 
thence with exultation vain. These of death 



What Lack I Yet? 43 

no hope may entertain: and their blind life so 
meanly passed that all other lots they envy. 
Fame of them the world has none: mercy and 
justice scorn them both; speak not of them but 
look and pass them by." 

We feel convinced that the lack of this prudence, 
virtue, vital energy in the heart, strength in the 
central seat of power and decision, is the cause of 
all misconduct and disaster, whether it be in man 
or nation, corporation or society. To trace a want 
to its origin we must find a cause or reason for it. 
This disastrous want or lack justifies us in en- 
deavouring to trace it to its cause, as it is really 
phenomenal. In so doing we seem to retrace our 
steps and so arrive at the point from which we 
started. In the endeavour to follow the instinct 
of self-preservation, we have subverted it. This is 
suicidal. The subverted instinct we shall recog- 
nise in the universal error or sin called selfishness. 

To bring this truth of the suicidal tendency of a 
subverted instinct home to the consciousness, we 
will draw on a few well-known facts as examples. 
We all know that to preserve our bodies in health 
and strength we must partake of food. That is 
self-preservation. We all know too that to 
gormandise is suicidal, and that we often eat what 
we cannot assimilate. This causes pain, discom- 
fort, and ill-health. To preserve health we drink 
water, but we do not fill our whole bodies with 
water. We bathe in water, but it would be suicidal 



44 He Restoreth My Soul 

for a human being to remain in water or under 
water. To have clothing is necessary in our 
climate, but one may be smothered under clothing, 
or one may be made unhealthy by too much 
or by injudicious clothing. We must work to 
preserve our health and strength, but we may 
destroy our health and strength by too much work 
or by unsuitable work. We rest and sleep to main- 
tain and renew our health and strength, but if we 
form the habit of resting and sleeping most of our 
time we become worthless to ourselves and a 
nuisance to our fellows. We must read and hear 
men's thoughts and study God's Word and works 
in order to promote growth of mind and soul, but 
if we only read and hear and never quietly think 
matters over that we may, in turn, produce thought, 
we shall have mental indigestion. We shall de- 
velop into a sort of literary machine or into a com- 
pendium. Memory is a receptacle essentially 
useful, but quiet thought is the living fountain,. 
A firm or corporation is permanently successful 
just in proportion as its governing force or central 
guiding point is prudent. Why do so great a 
percentage of them so quickly fail? It is because 
of the suicidal mode of carrying on the business. 
The few who remain are like birds of prey since 
they survive on the corpses of the many. The 
student of economics will tell you this. He will 
tell you also of firms subsisting entirely on the 
banking house, the banking house in time turning 



What Lack I Yet? 45 

around and swallowing up the whole thing, and 
the uninitiated wonder why. I think that if 
Christ were to come to the earth to institute 
righteous citizenship He would teach the same 
doctrine in business matters as he taught Nicode- 
mus in spiritual matters, "Ye must be born 
anew." I think too that He would teach that 
spiritual and business matters are inseparable. 

I could point you out a Christian Church 
whose cold aristocratic formalism has chilled the 
life-blood of her adherents. I could point you 
out a daughter of this Church who left her mother's 
side in consequence of this cold formalism, and 
while, as yet, warm, glowing blood of youth was 
coursing through her veins. But the daughter has 
been greedy for great numbers, irrespective of the 
quality of her adherents, and now she is suffering 
from anaemia and dropsy, and if she is not soon 
restored she must die. Other daughters are suf- 
fering unto death of one fell disease or another. 
Some are almost palsied. Some have been crushed 
between the larger bodies of their sisters. Some 
are being crushed now. Selfishness in some 
form is at the root of each failure. The mother 
of these daughters is in trouble now. She is dying 
and in her death chills she is a child again. In 
her childish way she cries for the cast-off clothes 
of her babyhood. Long bony fingers beckon her 
back to play with the shrouded phantoms of 
mediaeval darkness. Sad, pitiful sight! Had 



46 He Restoreth My Soul 

this aged mother kept herself in vigorous health 
by taking a kindly interest in her daughters 
instead of living in splendid isolation, she might 
to-day be a living example of prudence to her 
daughters. If the daughters had, in turn, always 
remembered the foundation on which their 
creed was built, "that ye love one another," 
instead of harbouring bitterness and envy, they 
would still be healthy blooming matrons. Selfish- 
ness in any form is suicidal in its tendency. The 
motto of immortality is one another, that of 
destruction is self. 

We have seen that selfishness is a perverted, 
nay, a subverted instinct. We have seen that in 
time this subverted instinct results in disaster 
or destruction to a soul. Now, if the soul's im- 
mortality depends on whether it live the Christ-life, 
that is, the " one-another " life, or not; then by the 
simplest process of reasoning, the Satan-life, that 
is the self -life, must result in the soul's destruction 
or death. If Christianity means anything it 
means this. Then the immortality of the soul 
depends upon the decision of its Ego or central 
guiding point. 

Nicodemus was thoroughly conversant with all 
the formalism of the established Church of his 
day and people, and he knew its shortcomings. 
When he heard of Jesus' teachings (and possibly 
he listened to some of them) , he found that Jesus 
had a different standpoint from his own, from 



What Lack I Yet? 47 

which He argued, but Nicodemus could not readily 
discover it and so he went quietly to Jesus to get 
at His secret. Jesus, knowing his honesty of 
purpose and knowing of his logical mind, told 
him the secret at once, " Ye must be born anew" 
(or from above) . The idea was so new it staggered 
even a learned Pharisee, but a little explanation 
soon convinced Nicodemus of the truth of it. 
That he was convinced is evident from his telling 
defence of Jesus amongst his fellows. Later we 
find him tenderly helping to bury the body of 
Jesus, helping to lay away the Holy Vessel that 
carried this truth to men and " brought life and 
immortality to light." 

In briefly sketching some of the myriad diffi- 
culties and intricacies by which we are environed 
as co -travellers, we are convinced that there is a 
radical wrong somewhere. We have endeavoured 
to trace this wrong to its root and find it to be 
a subverted instinct which has become an heredi- 
tary tendency to selfish habits. These habits are 
suicidal, but like the lotus and opium habits they 
are seductively pleasant until suddenly destruc- 
tion comes. We have tried to exemplify the nature 
and dire consequences of selfishness, and we have 
shown that there is retributive justice for violation 
of law, even in common matters. We have 
tried to show that ordinary prudence and common 
sense should have mended matters before this 
as a remedy towards a higher physical condition, 



48 He Restoreth My Soul 

as alleviation for the great suffering and want, 
bitterness and war which exist to-day. But 
ordinary prudence or common sense, as we find it, 
does not mend matters materially, is not an effect- 
ual remedy. Men form societies having for their 
ob j ect the correction of one or more abu ses . These 
societies are more or less successful, but never 
wholly so. Reformers arise and frequently do a 
vast amount of good, but it is never unmixed 
with evil. I am not entirely a pessimist, but there 
is so much honest endeavour with so little success 
that we must look further than to these reforms 
and societies for radical redemption. We repeat 
that we are now passing through that intenser 
darkness which ends the night and heralds the 
dawn. 

Our simplest and most initiatory office is to live 
physically. If we live physically we shall come 
into contact with other beings like ourselves. 
Upon our attitude towards these other beings 
rests our hope of immortality or a continued life. 
That is our second office. It is evident from the 
results of observation and experience that few of us 
realise the simplicity of the plan by which we obtain 
this continued life. To have the Christ-life or a 
perfect attitude towards our Father is the third 
office, and of this we shall speak later. 

A high degree of prudence and morality is 
essentially beneficial for this life, but these qualities 
combined will not give us immortality of soul. 



What Lack I Yet? 49 

Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the 
life; no man cometh unto the Father but by 
Me." This He said that He might be inquired 
of and obeyed in His teachings, and to Nicodemus, 
who was already prudent and moral and yet was 
anxious for perfection, He told the secret directly, 
"ye must be born anew." Then the question 
arises, What is it to "be born anew"? 



Part III 

ATTITUDE TOWARDS GOD: THE 

SOUL'S FINAL OFFICE 



51 



CHAPTER III 

THE SOUL'S CONCEPTION OF GOD 

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must 
worship in spirit and truth." 

John iv. 24. 

"That intelligent Being that governs the universe has 
perfect views of His own nature and acts, and of the matter 
on which He acts." 

Marcus Aurelius. 

ALPHA, Omega, I Am Because I Am, I Am or 
I Will Be, Eternal God, Creator, King 
Eternal, Sun of Righteousness, Husbandman, 
Father, thy Maker, the Holy One of Israel, my 
Salvation, Refuge for the Oppressed, Rock, For- 
tress, — by these significant titles Israel knew her 
God. A critical writer of the day has given us 
what he considers to be the sum total of Israel's 
idea of God, in the following descriptive phrase: 
" The Eternal, outside of ourselves, that makes for 
righteousness." If we add to this the knowledge 
that on righteousness depends our salvation, or 
in more easily realised terms, our chance of eternal 
life, or in more conventional phrase, Immortality, 
the importance, nay essentiality, of the truth- 
fulness or accuracy of these assertions or descrip- 

53 



54 He Restoreth My Soul 

tions gain weight. The attitude of the soul 
towards Israel's God then assumes a significance 
far removed from mere emotional religious fervour 
and doctrinal party spirit. Our obedience to 
Israel's God becomes our Law of Life when we 
remember that He is also our God, in fact the 
only One, or the All. God has taught through 
all religions — as well as Israel's — that obedience 
to Him is the highest ideal in every instance ; and 
this obedience takes form and quality as He gives 
understanding. Therefore when a soul assumes 
the position that his little view, and his alone, is 
the only true one, he at once tells to the world 
that his eye has not travelled over the lighted hills 
of God ; that he does not know of the beacons of the 
Almighty. He tells to the world that he has but 
sat in the light of a small dying taper, while the 
night shades have crept over his shrivelled and 
palsied soul. Oh, the pity of it ! If he would but 
lift his eyes to the hill-top beacon fires of God, 
from which his help cometh, it would not then 
be such a stretch of vision, nor yet such a bewilder- 
ing dazzle, to look above into the vaulted heavens 
where beams the Sun of Righteousness. He would 
be better prepared for a startling glimpse of the 
radiance. This soul, after having once caught 
the darting glint of the hill- top beacon fires, 
and whose strengthened vision has sought the 
gleam of the shining over-head, can never creep 
back cold and lifeless to sleep his soul's opportunity 



The Soul's Conception of God 55 

away in stagnation, that awfully certain causation 
of decay and death. If a soul be religious, but 
timid or cowardly, he may, on being disturbed 
by the call to searching attention, fly to his re- 
treat, and, like the familiar brown caterpillar, 
coil himself up in a ring. God made the cater- 
pillar so for purposes of protection, and we may 
presume to hope that the same excuse exists 
for this abnormally timid or cowardly soul. This 
soul has learnt a religious formula in which he 
trusts for protection from present annoyance 
and future suffering: a sort of panacea for all his 
much-to-be-dreaded ills. Having once accepted 
it he rests in this assurance of safety, and rests so 
effectually that his strength soon flags, his eye 
grows dim, and lethargy steals over his soul. 
Some people remind us of the quilled porcupine, 
which on being disturbed presents to his annoyer 
a ball of such a sharp and piercing character, 
that we would merit more reward than a porcupine 
could guarantee to justify us in meddling with him. 
These persons offer no logical arguments, but 
merely retire within their bristling quills — or 
creeds — and are secure in this effectual but cheap 
and ignoble protection. Do not approach them. 
Let them be quiet or they will wear themselves 
out in valueless energy, revolving in a small area, 
making no headway. Annoy them not, as by so 
antagonising them they are but hindered from 
seeing the Light. 



56 He Restoreth My Soul 

To-day is not a day of monastic retreat, nor 
should it be a day of bristling creeds. To-day is a 
day of broad advancement in all lines. God is 
the same to-day, yesterday, and for ever, and His 
laws and truths are practically the same; but 
as each one of us must conceive his own idea and 
ideal of God for himself, and as we are each differ- 
ent to one another, so must our conceptions of 
Him and His truths ever be also different. Hence 
bigoted dogma is unscientific and should be 
relegated to the musty past, like an old time-worn 
garment. We have the same right to search for 
higher, more lucid truths in relation to religious 
subjects as we now enjoy in other fields. Holiness 
is life. Religion is the science of man's immor- 
tality, the greatest, and most important of all 
sciences. It should, to be reasonable, be allowed 
greater liberty, not less, than the more ordinary 
subject. It is the cry of the soul, longing for its 
ultimate home in the heart of God. Lowell most 
truly says: — 

"Upward the soul for ever turns her eyes; 
The next hour always shames the hour before; 
One beauty, at its highest, prophesies 
That by whose side it shall seem mean and poor; 
No God-like thing knows aught of less and less, 
But widens to the boundless perfectness." 

A searching soul is continually discovering new 
truths, or rather new appreciation or application 
of truths. We should search for beautifying, as 



The Soul's Conception of God 57 

well as essential truths, as do the students in art, 
science, and literature. These latter studies owe 
their existence as systems to the knowledge re- 
vealed to or by individuals as they have untiringly 
searched, studied, and applied, each in turn adding 
his quota to these great schools. All was not 
revealed to or by one person, nor is all yet revealed. 
Many ordinary occurrences are as yet totally 
inexplicable even to the most profound of our 
scholars. The race has been recipient of many 
spiritual truths in many forms, but it would indeed 
be an arrant dogmatist that would be willing to 
take the position that inspiration had entirely 
closed with God's revelation of truth, history, 
and prophecy as given in our accepted Scriptures. 
If all spiritual truths are already discovered 
and faithfully applied while yet we are in this 
present deplorable condition, what a hopeless 
outlook! But the past history of creeds and 
cults, together with analogous teachings of her 
lesser sister sciences, make us hopeful, and we de- 
light to feel that we know, that we may yet learn, 
how to live well even in the present physical 
state, and also learn to apply more perfectly the 
way already taught, to obtain and enjoy eternal 
life. I love to think of our beneficent Father dis- 
covering to us so many blessings even for this life 
only. I like to think of the bubbling water in the 
kettle, as singing its secrets into the willing ear of 
Watt, telling him of what a vast power was lying 



58 He Restoreth My Soul 

almost unused. I like to think of the spirit of grav- 
itation as sighing amongst the boughs of the apple 
tree, as stealing down to the drowsy Newton, whis- 
pering softly, "Do you not observe how I draw 
things down and never up? Let me voice myself 
through you to a ready world." I like to think of 
the spirit of the earth, reasoning out to Galileo of 
her spheral and revolving character. Of Jove or 
Jupiter as singing of the glory of the heavens to the 
early astronomers. And of the adorable Athene 
as teaching here a little, there a little, to the 
children of this lovely little planet over whom she 
spreads her motherly care. I love to think of 
men as listening to the siren song of the waves, 
"Come and discover the secrets of my weird 
depths," and to the spirit of the mineral nether- 
world as sending up its elves and sprites to beckon 
men toward their priceless and uncounted treasure 
world of mineral strata, paleolithic remains, or 
other of its many secreted riches for mankind. 
Was steam less potent before its power was noted 
and applied? Did apples fall upward before a 
philosophical person noted that they invariably 
fell down? No, but these laws had not been 
understood before to any extent. The earth 
was spheral and moved before Galileo lost his 
life for disclosing the secret to a foolish unscientific 
world, but to the sane few of his age it became a 
useful knowledge. The stars sang together before 
they were located, named, and measured by men, 



The Soul's Conception of God 59 

and myriads doubtless still float in the great 
breath of the radiancy uncounted save by Him. 
Music, beauty, rocks and ocean, iron, gold, coal, 
and the glittering diamond each and all existed 
ages before man became aware of their existence 
or value. There was a time, men tell us, when 
surgical instruments for cutting were fashioned 
rudely out of stone. To-day we know them to be 
exquisitely fashioned out of the finest steel. 

A prophet tells us that a while before all things 
should become new and holy, the Lord God would 
come and the holy ones with Him. That day was 
not to be all brightness, or all gloom; not day 
and night; but at eventide there would be light. 
It would seem to foretell a sort of twilight like that 
which precedes the dawn. Is not our race, even in 
its highest phase, still in this twilight thus de- 
scribed? Do not carry your lantern too late into 
the light, it will cause you to appear foolish 
to those who know that the greater Light has 
arrived. 

I beg for liberty for souls to discover God and 
apply His vital truths. But we are hopeful. Do 
we not already see many valiant souls resolutely 
shaking off their time-worn fetters? We are not 
true to the apostles' teaching if we do not examine 
matters, each for himself, as knowing that his 
eternal life depends wholly on his own thinking 
and walking and on no man's formula. God says: 
"I have spread out My hands all the day unto a 



60 He Restoreth My Soul 

rebellious people, that walk in a way that is not 
good, after their own thoughts; a people that 
provoke Me to My face continually." These 
people, He says, say to others, not like themselves, 
"Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am 
holier than thou." Men do not love this arrogant 
spirit, and we would judge that God does not 
either. 

There seem to be three classes of unbelief, with, 
of course, their varying grades. The class- words, 
heterodoxy, infidelity, and atheism are too familiar 
to require explaining as regards their vocabulary 
meaning ; but as to their religious relation to man- 
kind, what do they signify? A heterodox Christian 
seems to be one who believes in Christ and 
Christianity but who does not believe in one or 
more of the most generally accepted doctrines or 
dogmas. An infidel seems to mean a person who 
does not believe in some given religion; to us it 
means one who does not believe in our Scriptures 
as being the inspired word of God. An atheist 
seems to be one who is foolish enough to deny any 
and all conceptions of God, or His being, as 
world-soul. 

Atheists are, fortunately, but a handful com- 
pared to the other classes, and indeed we may 
wisely doubt if there really are any such. Many 
would-be wise persons affect the different minor 
forms of atheism, but few sane persons are 
honestly sure inwardly that there is no author and 



The Soul's Conception of God 61 

governor of the universe. These persons- — if 
there be such — exist temporarily as human beings, 
as having physical bodies but as having no soul, 
hence they are not conscious of the over-soul. 
We find that the most benighted tribes have an 
idea of some power outside of themselves that 
makes for good or ill. Also we find that the vilest 
of civilised men are afraid of God and a future life. 
It cannot therefore be degradation that results in 
atheism, but rather the want of that factor, a soul, 
which is reasonably required in order that a person 
may realise a hope or fear of God or a future. We 
do not need to pity them so much as might at first 
seem, as it is inconceivable that they should 
suffer from the want of that which to them is 
only a fantasy in others. If they, in their hearts, 
resent this seeming lack, then they are in truth 
acknowledging a supreme author and governor, 
or first cause ; and are not atheists but infidels. 

The class of unbelief known as Infidelity is, 
like the landscape and horizon, different to each 
beholder's view. To a Moslem, all who do not 
follow the cry, " Allah and his prophet Mahomet," 
are infidels. To the time-worn religions of eastern 
Asia, all other is infidelity. To the Christian 
world, speaking broadly, all else is infidelity. In 
the inner circle of our nominally Christian 
peoples, all who do not regard our Scriptures as 
the inspired word of God are known as infidels, 
and are more severely criticised by our believers 



62 He Restoreth My Soul 

than are foreign religionists, and rightly so, if 
they have no form whatever wherein to express 
and confess their allegiance to God. We must 
honour a sincere worshipper of God, no matter 
how faulty we may deem his cult to be. But for a 
soul to loosely acknowledge that there is a God, 
but deny Him any and all form of worship or com- 
munion as soul to over-soul, that is ignoble, 
unwise, injurious, destructive. 

Heterodoxy! While infidelity pertains to our 
wider scope of soul vision, so does heresy pertain 
to our nearer and more objective and subjective 
soul vision, just as the horizon and general land- 
scape compares in significance with various objects 
and subjects to be seen and known within its 
bounds. If I stand by your side I do not see 
precisely the same view of an object that you 
do, the focus being slightly different perhaps, and 
our eyes not of the same strength and clearness of 
seeing. The lesson conveyed is easily evident. 
Then who shall presume to call his brother a heretic, 
if that brother be found to be reaching out in search- 
ing aspiration after his Father, who is in Heaven, 
and endeavouring, ever so weakly, to follow 
that which he conceives to be inspired teaching, 
no matter what form it may take? If our short- 
range views were intended to be identical, our 
Maker would have, no doubt, arranged matters 
just so. His One Beloved Son avoided all foolish 
wrangling, and kept fast by a very few, but 



The Soul's Conception of God 63 

very plain, vital truths. When His disciples 
began to wrangle about which of them was fittest 
for the upper seat in the Kingdom of God, He 
called a child unto Him and set it in the midst of 
them and said, " Verily I say unto you, except 
ye be converted and become as little children 
ye shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven." How 
shall a small child know precisely of the intricate 
doctrines, as to which is orthodox and which 
is heterodox? Yet Jesus said, "Ye must become 
as this little child." When his disciples, with 
arrogant self-approval, were wrangling over the 
seat of supremacy in the Kingdom of Heaven, He 
told them that unless they changed from that 
spirit and became innocent of these selfish in- 
stincts, they could not even enter, let alone the 
possibility of having a chief place. But it was 
a scientific axiom that Christ spoke to them, not 
the threat of an angry Master. Heaven is bliss: 
wrangling is a state of torment. Jesus Christ was 
always scientific and reasonable. To preserve 
our physical body and develop its highest possi- 
bility, we must use simple, wholesome food, 
breathe pure air, care for our persons as regards 
exercise, cleanliness, clothing. To preserve our 
souls and attain highest development and eternal 
life, we must use the same simple methods and 
sane means. We shall never arrive there by 
accusing one another of heresy. The Sermon on 
the Mount is the only criterion of heresy. 



64 He Restoreth My Soul 

While these three classes of unbelief exist in 
easily recognisable form, not so easily observed 
are other three, which may be suggested as 
being the opposite poles of the former. These are 
Fetichism as opposite Atheism, Credulity as op- 
posite Infidelity, and Indifference as opposite to 
the wranglers of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy. 

Indifference is even more culpable than jealous 
bickering, though not so unpleasant. The Scrip- 
tures frequently urge us to be earnest in seeking 
after that which is good. If we endeavour to 
trace the evil of a state of mental and spiritual 
indifference or carelessness through all its manifold 
results effected in our social and religious condition 
to-day, we shall be appalled. This indifference 
breeds a cowardly shirking of gravest responsibility 
that is heinous in its issue. Lost opportunities, 
unused talent, unrelieved suffering, cruel labour 
systems, thievish commercial systems, systems 
that tend to immorality and insincerity in social 
life, and endless other conditions might be cited 
in which the indifference of the many indulges the 
selfishness of the few to the general degradation 
of the many, thus injuring the whole. Reformers 
are better than dead men, even fanaticism is better 
than sleepy indifference. 

If we are to prove all things and hold fast only 
that which is good, we must not stand open- 
mouthed, ready to believe every person and every 
"ism." Credulity belongs to weaklings. Child- 



The Soul's Conception of God 65 

ren are trustful, but not credulous, and are as- 
tonishingly direct in their criticism of what we 
tell them and of how we conduct ourselves. A 
foremost minister of the Gospel is said to have 
remarked that he would rather take the interpre- 
tation of the Scriptures as it suggestd itself to an 
illiterate mind than from that of the most scholarly 
theologian, simply because of this child-like di- 
rectness in taking things just as they are. It 
would be almost impossible for the scholar to 
detach himself from his preconceived ideas of the 
meaning attached to the language used. Search, 
seek, prove, knock ; these commands are in opposi- 
tion alike to wrangling and lazy credulity. There- 
fore we again notice the wisdom of our great 
Teacher in advising simplicity of character and 
creed. How many of us have time or ability 
to take each variation of each religion or even of 
only our Christian denominations and search well 
and prove all? Our strenuous social condition 
does not often permit of this. But we each have 
time and opportunity to prove a few preserving 
truths and the Spirit of Truth is promised as aid 
to those who really desire Him. Better know 
a few things and then, like the man who was 
restored, we can say to the sneering Pharisee, 
"One thing I know, that whereas I was blind now 
I see." He did not argue: he could see. It is 
deadly loss to be too credulous. 

At the opposite pole of Atheism we shall find 



66 He Restoreth My Soul 

that state which is perhaps the most nearly 
covered by the term Fetichism. Pantheism might 
be used but is scarcely general enough, while 
fetichism would cover all error that lies in the more 
dangerous forms of pantheism. Idolatry might 
be used, but it too lacks much that would enable 
us to use it as here intended. Fetichism seems 
to be the name given to that class of belief or 
superstition which attaches significance to material 
objects or personalities as though they possessed 
power or were a cause of success or failure, good 
or ill ; and is a most dangerous enemy to even our 
enlightened peoples — dangerous, because so pre- 
valent, yet so unobserved. We are informed by his- 
torians, explorers, and religionists, that all sorts of 
objects are being used as fetich by central Africans, 
uncivilised American Indians, the lowest grades 
of Asiatic tribes, and wild island tribes of the 
great seas. Men and spirits, as well as material 
objects, are frequently made to be fetich by semi- 
enlightened and even more civilised peoples. 
This class of belief seems to infer that these various 
objects, men, or spirits, are to be feared rather than 
loved, as having power or influence for either 
good or ill. There the attitude towards such is 
rather fear than adoration. In the semi-enlight- 
ened religions, gifts, rites, and ceremonies are 
largely considered as means of appeasing the 
wrath of these various minor deities rather than 
the offering of praise for benefits received. With 



The Soul's Conception of God 67 

the still better enlightened peoples, especially 
amongst the best educated classes and the priest- 
hood, they only look upon objects as visible 
presentations of the God-Power behind all things, 
and the minor divinities as messengers, or executive 
of the God-Power. Many, curious, and exceed- 
ingly varied have been the inventions of these 
religionists to appease the wrath of local minor 
deities. Plato told his contemporaries that their 
divinities could not be gods as they were contin- 
ually at variance with one another. Euripides 
says, "if the gods do aught that is unseemly then 
they are not gods at all." The sun and celestial 
deities too have their business assigned, says 
Marcus Aurelius. These and other heathen 
philosophers and teachers better understood the 
inconsistency of worshipping or appeasing these 
uncertain and imperfect deities than did the 
common people. The priesthood, at its best, 
strove to teach ignorant people by symbol, but 
it may well be feared that the rituals of these 
cults were better observed than were the truths 
behind them remembered or understood by 
the masses. Some of these services were 
splendidly magnificent even though they must 
be abhorrent to our more refined taste. In 
the great group of oriental cults, while there 
certainly are living truths brought down from 
retiring centuries, still there is a strong tissue 
of this fetichism woven through the whole 



68 He Restoreth My Soul 

fabric that brings with it the always ensuing 
degradation. 

Perhaps no cultus is better calculated to repre- 
sent to us fetichism in its highest phase than is 
Judaism. When Judaism was in her full glory, 
when she walked with God as His handmaid, she 
was taught to observe a ritual that was symbolic 
of God's greater plan for the whole race. But 
Judaism became untrue to her God, while yet the 
racial child was unborn, who was to bring life and 
liberty to light for the race. Her holy significant 
rites and ceremonies, types and shado wings, be- 
came in time, through her arrogant self -worship, 
combined with her proximity to, and in a measure 
affiliation with those who held seductive and idola- 
trous doctrines, almost entire fetichism. You 
may mark the decadence of her holy wifehood by 
the destruction of her temples, the removal of the 
Shekinah from over the Mercy Seat, the with- 
drawal of her inspiration, and lastly her mournful 
desolation. In all history, sacred or secular, in 
fiction or biography, martyrdoms or race wars, 
there is to me no story so pathetic, so sad, so 
hopeless, as that of the devout Jew in the deca- 
dence, mourning over the departed glory, the 
departed surety, the departed hope. Where is 
now the splendid temple, the holy prophet, the 
covenant-keeping Jehovah? There is no Pre- 
sence over the Mercy Seat, alas! there is no Mercy 
Seat. The promised land is overrun by unholi- 



The Soul's Conception of God 69 

ness, the abomination of desolation is in the Holy 
Place. Unhappy Judaism, ye brought forth the 
holy life when your spirit was in a state of coma 
and ye knew it not. Ye expected to beget a thing 
that would harmonise with your fetichism. You 
expected and desired a tribal son that should 
victoriously wear a glittering crown of shining 
jewels on his brow; this One had only piercing 
thorns. You expected a splendid renewal of your 
ancient glory and state; He brought you only 
lowliness of heart and a suffering life. You 
thought, in your blindness, that you had begotten 
an abortive thing, so you slew Him in your hate 
and disappointment. But indeed you were the 
great mother of a greater son, a racial son. When 
in your unconsciousness and anger ye slew 
Him, ye did but lift Him to His throne. He is 
the only Ruler, not only of your beloved land and 
city, but of the whole earth. He is King of kings, 
Lord of lords. But you still play indifferently 
with your rites and ceremonies and fear their 
desecration as much as does the lowest fetich 
worshipper in benighted heathenism. Ye should 
be rejoicing and working for the coming presence 
of the kingdom of your wonderful Son. 

If Judaism was prototype nowhere in this world 
shall we so clearly and certainly find the type as 
in the Church Catholic of Christendom. This 
Church we find divided into three main divisions, 
namely, Roman, Greek, Protestant, with their 



70 He Restoreth My Soul 

numerous subdivisions. Of the doctrinal differ- 
ences of each we are not here taking note, but 
merely wish to see if there may be found evidence 
in them of this erosive disease, which has so 
completely eaten away the health and strength of 
her prototype, namely fetichism. In following 
this object we shall find that the Church Catholic 
or Church militant is held up into gigantic pro- 
minence before a fearing world, by two strong 
systems or structures — history and dogma. We 
would not wish to undervalue its historic founda- 
tion, as a religion must needs have an historic 
basis as well as philosophical and ethical. We 
would not wish to undervalue the dogmatic and 
credal system as there must be, at least, some 
show of uniformity of opinion in order to maintain 
any organisation. Variety of sects and creeds 
are doubtless of benefit to men as helping to 
serve to keep them in constant struggle, and 
struggle is always better than lifeless acquiescence 
and indifferent forgetfulness. It seems as though 
God veils great truths in order to give men some- 
thing to think about, something to hope and to 
struggle for. This Church militant is filled in 
with all sorts of objects of fetich worship (or 
fear), and in some instances the array of objects 
is so numerous and varied and presumably 
potent that a poor Hottentot might well pale 
with envy. 

We need not belabour Rome with her wonder- 



The Soul's Conception of God 71 

fully intricate network of fetich objects. It may 
have been well enough for kindergarten days, but 
to-day the real world-spirit has grown away from 
these old toys, as is evidenced by many of her 
most advanced people, and the forced seclusion 
and isolation of the head of that once tyrannical, 
and now not too kind old Mother Church. She 
is practically dead now, although her widely 
spreading boughs still look green and fresh to the 
careless eye. The axe has severed the root from 
the trunk and she shall only retain her living 
appearance for a short season. The world-spirit 
is a living spirit of rapid growth; it will not long 
be tied to the trunk of a dead tree, neither will 
it long be chained by links of dead letters, though 
they be golden in appearance, and numerous 
enough to be netted together in a robe that might 
drape the earth. This strong, living, growing 
child this, Zeitgeist, will laughingly burst them 
asunder and step forth a free soul, free to serve 
God and the race. 

The Greek division, with unhappy Russia as 
her head! Is she not so nearly in the same con- 
dition, only less influential, that we need scarcely 
discuss her separately? 

Where shall we discriminate between the " High" 
Protestant State Churches and the Roman or 
Greek forms of the Church, nominal, or militant? 
It is merely a matter of degree. The artistic 
nature of refined man is gratified by a degree 



72 He Restoreth My Soul 

of imposing ceremony. The soul of the lover of the 
beautiful is so near to being a lover of God, who 
made the truly beautiful, that he often mistakes 
aestheticism for religion. Also men who are not 
refined, in many ways, love the beautiful, the 
ceremonious, the splendid paraphernalia. Man 
is essentially an aesthetic animal. So we find 
that the kindergarten system of education is 
invaluable to undeveloped mankind. If a people 
have not arrived at that degree of intelligence and 
reasonableness where it can understand the ethical 
philosophy of right living then by all means 
grant it the object lesson toys. Lead these 
children gently to a higher plane by significant 
symbols and representative pictures. When a 
people have arrived at a more mature phase of 
intelligence, this gorgeous use of paraphernalia 
seems absurd, a dead letter, a fetich that we fear 
to offend. It really is a matter of maturity and 
corresponding intelligence. We rejoice to know 
of so many intelligent men, of such lovely charac- 
ter, who are within this organisation; and we also 
know how valiantly many of them are trying to 
break down these palsying ritualistic walls. Will 
the issue be break or hold, develop or die? The 
next few years shall answer us. 

Nor would we venture to discriminate between 
the "High" forms of the State Church and the 
lower forms, nor yet between them and reform 
or dissenting bodies. It is still a matter of 



The Soul's Conception of God 73 

degree, or mainly, distinction without difference, 
only in variety of modes. 

In many cases, we remain within the folds of 
our hereditary cult, and as some one has put it, 
"We do what we must, and believe what we can." 
Each of us, however, we feel safe in presuming, 
has a little nucleus of ideas in which we really 
believe from our soul's very centre. Be assured 
it is the only thing we need fear. It is the still 
small voice within, speaking out from the new life. 
As the winged creature silently, but surely, 
crawls out of the old crust of the cocoon, so 
should we allow our new living selves to escape 
from the old home of ritualistic bondage. The 
little creature has not despised its old home, 
but only grown out of it. If he fears to break 
away from its encrusted walls he dies. It is 
his fetich. And so with us. 

The Law of Order is, we hope, strong within 
us. Yet, we find, in all organisations at their 
inception, also when approaching disorganisation, 
there is not this uniformity of opinion and con- 
duct. But during the continuance of them a 
measure of uniformity is essential to that govern- 
ment which holds intact any school or organisation. 
Changes may occur, but not in a chaotic manner. 
I say essential to organisation, but I do not say 
essential to the Christian life. The trouble does not 
lie in uniformity of belief, or in any orderly service, 
far from it, but in the palsying bands of creed, and 



74 He Restore th My Soul 

the fetichism of the service. This systematised 
state becomes just as much a fetich as the old 
bones or shells of the poor black man, the praying 
wheel of the Buddhist, or the rosary of the Roman 
Catholic. If you fear censure, or to offend an 
organisation by not attending service, or in any 
other way, then it is fetich to you. Frequent 
the public worship of God from no fear of man, 
or for social position, but only to publicly praise 
your beneficent Father. Jesus Christ attended 
His hereditary temple services thus. All else is 
idolatrous. Just so many minor services, just 
so many hymns, so many prayers, so many new 
converts, so much eloquence in the pulpit, so 
many various collections, for that is what main- 
tains this praying wheel of our Christendom 
from Rome to the dissenting bodies. In the 
average prayer meeting, or testimony meeting, 
if one attends regularly enough, we shall well 
know what is coming next and where the timely 
and local colouring will come in. We have thus 
heard prayers that would astonish us — and the 
offerer — beyond measure to have answered. We 
have heard self-satisfied testimonies that compel 
us to think that the giver is either joking, dream- 
ing, or very dishonest when he dares utter such 
Pharisaical words. It is so very like the parable 
of the pharisee and publican. The poor publican 
we seldom see or hear. 

The " Salvation Army" has put on her uniform 



The Soul's Conception of God 75 

and beaten her drum before a degraded population 
with wide-reaching effects. God has blessed her 
work, but when she begins to lose sight of her 
Christlike work in her pride of success and great 
numbers, her days are numbered. 

It is well, indeed, that religion has compelled 
society to some degree, at least, of honesty and 
virtue. It is well that she prohibits murder, 
theft, and various other injurious habits in her 
people. We wish she prohibited much more. 
She still allows the law to take life, and men in 
high places to drive slaves and steal from the 
babies. She could with reason prohibit a few 
things which she now allows. Still this also can 
be abused, and become fetich. 

The Buddhist must needs refrain until he re- 
frains himself out of existence, or out of volition, 
into nothingness, his Nirvana. The bigoted Jew 
must not so much as touch the garments of the 
Gentile. He must not do this, he must not do 
that. We well know that a strong moral lesson 
was intended at the first in this curious restriction, 
but in losing sight of the lesson it became fetichism, 
hateful, arrogant, injurious. In the general Church 
militant the leaders of the various divisions are, 
more frequently than not, loath to meet on the 
same occasion or platform. In her numerous 
divisions, and with degrees of vehemence she 
prescribes various doses to her adherents. You 
must believe this, or you must not believe that, 



76 He Restoreth My Soul 

the oracle says, or "let him be anathema, let him 
be degraded, let him be excommunicated, let him 
be accursed in life to come, let him be tried for 
heresy, let him be ostracised.' ' And so this 
spirit of fetichism limits us. 

While the first form of fetich appeals to the 
spectacular, this latter is of great use as to keeping 
up these different divisions numerically. A meter 
is a useful enough machine in its place, but when 
you measure spirituality by quantity, and the 
Church by numerals, your days as a Church are 
numbered. You may coerce great numbers of 
people into a nominal membership through fear of 
fire, ostracism, or what not, but you can no more 
coerce the "new life" into a man's soul by fear, 
than you can by machinery force brains into the 
head of an imbecile. It is stated by historians 
that Ferdinand of Spain, after having promised 
religious freedom to the Moors if they complied 
with the conditions of a treaty which he formulated, 
stood sword in hand and administered the rite of 
baptism to more than fifty thousand captive 
Moslems. Did Ferdinand change those truly 
most excellent Moorish Moslems into good Spanish 
citizens and devout Roman Catholics ? Never ! 
When Jesus the Christ brought the Gospel of 
eternal life He had a small following of devout 
souls. It was accounted a criminal offence to 
dare to be one of His disciples. It was rarely that 
an active devotee for long escaped with his life or 



The Soul's Conception of God 77 

at best his liberty. The popular Church of that 
day used the same methods as she does in our day, 
although she was less tolerant and more severe, 
we are obliged to confess, not from any great 
change of tactics or heart, but only that she 
cannot so well coerce and control this great 
growing child — the world-spirit of our day. 

The meter is also used in regard to Churches. 
It is fitting that we should offer for the particular 
use of our worship of the Most High that which 
is most beautiful and perfect, and it is difficult 
to conceive of it being a sin to have elegant archi- 
tecture, but when a building becomes a money- 
meter of a community, or even a piety-meter, at 
that moment it becomes degraded to a fetich 
object of worldly influence and fear, which is dia- 
metrically opposed to the holy symbolic signi- 
ficance of the Temple, the services of which were 
calculated to instruct men to fear and trust God 
and God only. The apostle James tells us that 
pure religion and undefiled before God and the 
Father is to visit the fatherless and widows in 
their affliction and to keep ourselves unspotted 
from the world. It sounds easy, but have we 
ever followed it fully? Paul in exhorting the 
Corinthian Church tells them this, "Ye are 
God's building." Again "Know ye not that 
ye are temples of God, and that the Spirit 
of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile 
the temple, him shall God destroy, for the 



78 He Restoreth My Soul 

temple of God is holy, which temple ye 
are. 

I have failed to find passages which advise or 
command expensive structures for worship, that 
is, to be used in the Christian dispensation. Still, 
if these be the offering to God of a loving, obedient 
people, who have supplied all the needs of suffer- 
ing humanity first, we should hope that a pitiful 
Father would be pleased with the pretty houses 
built in His name, but we think only on these 
conditions can they be acceptable. The cry of the 
cold and hungry reaches Heaven sooner than the 
church spires. God will never see the spires until 
the tears of pity for the weak ones are wiped away 
from His eyes. He hears their cries and not our 
operatic choirs. Our Lord told the Pharisees that 
the Kingdom of God was within the heart. He 
always taught a universal, liberal, wholesome, 
free, and esoterically perfect religion. When ques- 
tioned on doctrinal points He invariably replied 
from the esoteric — or into the within — standpoint. 
He cast aside all fetich and idolatry, and was 
consequently followed to the death, by the jew, but 
scornfully rejected by the many. And so it is 
to-day. Many scornfully reject the real Christ, 
and a few would gladly die for His dear sake. 
Jesus did not ask that in the first place He 
should have great numbers of adherents or 
that grand edifices should be built in His 
name, but He did demand that His followers 



The Soul's Conception of God 79 

should live His sort of life, an offering to the 
Most High. 

Is there inherent sin in a beautiful gown or 
saintliness in an ugly one? Is a soul less beautiful 
in a lovely garment than in miserable raiment? 
Sin may certainly lurk in expensive clothing and 
does if it is obtained at the expense of the poor. 
A soul may certainly be black as midnight though 
clothed with cloth of gold and diamonds. We all 
expect to see the angels radiantly clothed and 
beautiful as our sweetest dreams. Some day we 
shall all be lovely and clothed with the most 
entrancing robes. We shall all have comfortable, 
convenient homes. We shall see no more hunger- 
pinched faces or miserable raiment, no more 
startled expression as of a hunted beast, no more 
babies in slavery of workshops. The whole 
earth will put on her beautiful garment — and 
there will be no stain of sin upon it. In that day 
we shall have no fear of material objects as though 
they might influence us for good or evil. Our 
fetich days shall have passed away. We shall 
have but one God and His name shall be one, 
and they shall teach no more every man his 
neighbour, "the law shall then be in the inward 
parts of each of us." 

There is a nucleus of souls in the nominal 
Church of to-day, who are not subject much to 
either of these different forms of unbelief. We 
find by reading the passages, Luke xvii. 22-xviii. 9, 



80 He Restoreth My Soul 

inclusive, that there will be a small nucleus of 
real believers when Christ shall return to the earth. 
That it will be small we conclude by taking Christ's 
own comparison of Noah entering the ark. That 
the faith would be almost extinct is prophesied by 
our Lord in the question, "When the Son of 
man cometh shall He find the faith on the earth?" 
Also in Rev. xviii. 4 the Lord calls to His own few, 
"Come forth, My people, out of her that ye 
have no fellowship with her sins," etc., and thus 
we have the complete knowledge, first, the figure 
in Noah entering the ark in the Old Testament, 
then Christ's assertion as cited by Luke, and 
lastly a call from beyond the veil by our Redeemer 
to assure us of His fidelity, and begging pathetically 
that at least a few be true to Him, true to His 
highest teaching and life. 

If there are few who have the Faith at His 
coming, how shall they be known to us? If 
we too wish to have this most desirable acquire- 
ment how shall we attain to it? I seem to see the 
Messiah once more standing before the raging 
mob of priests, the calm, majestic embodiment 
of Truth once more before the learned pan- 
religionist and judicially diplomatic Pilate, who 
with contracted brow and half-indulgent sneer 
inquires of Him, "What is truth?" No one 
but the patient Saviour could endure that half- 
cynical, half -ignorant, curling lip with such heroic 
calmness. 



The Soul's Conception of God 81 

He had been entrusted with a mission to the 
world. He had already testified to the truth. 
That was all. There was no more to say. Oh, 
how Handel's conception of this world-tragedy 
rings in our ears. The mission, the taunts, the 
sorrows; but also the grand final. Christ testified 
before His earthly judge, Pilate, that He came that 
He might bear witness to the truth. He testifies 
before the judicial world-spirit of to-day the same 
mission. 

There was no fetich of creeds in His religion. 
His was a white and seamless garment. The 
soldiers disputed for ownership of the robe, while 
He Himself yet hung on the cross. And so it is 
to-day. His guards wrangle for the seamless robe, 
but who grieves for the Man of Sorrows upon the 
cross? His banner methinks shall also be glisten- 
ing white, with a cross formed upon it from the 
words, life and liberty, intersected by the words, 
love and truth. Above this cross shall be a radi- 
ance, below it a narrow straight roadway and 
along the roadway written in eternal characters: 
"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man 
cometh unto the Father but by me." "For I am 
not ashamed of the Gospel ; for it is the power of 
God unto salvation to every one that believeth." 

"Ashamed of Jesus! Yes, I may 
When I 've no guilt to wash away; 
No tear to wipe, no good to crave, 
No fears to quell, no soul to save. 
6 



82 He Restoreth My Soul 

"Ashamed of Jesus! Just as soon 
Let midnight be ashamed of noon; 
'T is midnight with my soul till He, 
Bright Morning Star, bid darkness flee. 

"Till then — nor is my boasting vain — 
Till then I boast a Saviour slain; 
And oh ! may this my glory be, 
That Christ is not ashamed of me." 



CHAPTER IV 

WHAT IS TRUTH? — INTELLECTUAL RELIGION 

"Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are 
somewhat religious. For as I passed along and observed 
the objects of your worship, I found also . . . this inscrip- 
tion, To An Unknown God. What therefore ye worship 
in ignorance, this I set forth unto you." 

Acts xvii. 23. 

"I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was 
blind, now I see." 

John ix. 25. 

WE have asked, what did Jesus believe, what 
did He teach, what did He do? because as 
a Christianised people these questions are of 
vital importance to us, and we feel that we have 
a right to ask them, as they do actually concern 
us. • 

Pilate, after first examining the testimony of 
Jesus, asked Him sarcastically, "What is truth?" 
but at the end of this examination we find that he 
sought to release Him, insisting that there was no 
fault to be found in Him. "I find no fault in 
Him," says Pilate to-day, but the raging mob 
still cry, "Away with him. Crucify him, crucify 
him." There is no way but His way. What 

83 



84 He Restoreth My Soul 

is the secret of this way?' Where lies the magnetic 
path that leads us to this radiancy? We must 
seek for it in a higher sphere, on a more rational 
plane than in object adoration which is suitable 
only for kindergarten lessons for the children and 
for old age after all healthy vigour is gone, all 
full life a state of the past, when the mind and 
body alike sink into senile apathy and in crooning 
tones mumble over the lessons learned in childhood. 
To us religion resolves itself into three great classes 
with of course their varying grades. May we 
not call to remembrance the probable triunity 
of our nature as comparison — physical body, mind 
force, and soul? 

The object -worship which we have already no- 
ticed at some length, we use as parallel of the 
physical body, which body is lifeless and impotent 
when vacated by mind and soul. 

The second class we use as parallel to the great 
forces which give activity and character to the 
physical. How shall we clearly define this most 
important and distinctive class? It comprises so 
much that is good and wise and helpful in our lives 
and actions to-day. We might perhaps term it 
the intellectual phase of religion in which we are 
presenting a high morality as very essentially good 
for this life ; indeed an absolutely necessary condi- 
tion for the individual, or tribal self, if he will live 
sanely and healthily, if he would arrive at the high- 
est earthly possibility. It is a mere worldly pru- 



What is Truth? 85 

dence. We have touched on some details of public 
and private abuses, and endeavoured to see how 
easily they could be remedied, and how, in all de- 
partments of life, wise teachers and exemplars, with 
more or less success, have tried to mend matters. 
All this endeavour for good of the individual and 
tribal self, to bring about general betterment, or 
to make the human entity a higher class creature, 
is the central point of the "second-class religion." 
It compares with the mind of the individual and 
gives force, activity, and character to the race. 
A man lives according to his rationale, a race 
lives according to its rationale. This class of 
religion is broad as life, it is as universal as God's 
creation. It is the second phase — shall we term it ? 
— of the creative I Am. The first was to create 
objects, the second was to redeem them to their 
highest purpose as objects; but finally that the 
human soul should live eternally. Out of the 
great creative Mind in His creative phase, has 
grown our mistaken worship of various objects. 
From the second phase of the great Mind has 
grown the strong desire that is innate in every 
human soul — if he be sane — to help redeem 
the objective world, mainly, through the sub- 
jective world. 

The classic poets sang the glories of conquest, of 
human passion and human prowess. They sang of 
it in flowing, majestic metres conceived by them 
in the wondrous doings of their minor gods in order 



86 He Restoreth My Soul 

to stimulate mankind in that which was considered 
by them to be the highest attainment as man and 
nation. Their ideal was conquest, prowess, physi- 
cal beauty, etc. These poets, whose stately 
sentences are to-day common knowledge to the 
student, whose majestic measures are still treading 
the halls of our universities, who keep step 
with the centuries in their choral processionale, 
have they no pregnant message to us? Did these 
voices, as they stood waving adieu from the 
threshold of the almost unknown, hurl no one lead- 
ing helpful truth down the avenue of thought 
to meet the approaching centuries? 

The voices of the past are venerated by us to- 
day, and wisely so. The voices of to-day shall 
help to mould the future of mankind. We are 
sufficiently awakened to grasp this idea somewhat 
even now, and we shall see it more widely presently. 
We already hear of the prophet of labour, the 
prophet of art, and prophets innumerable. We 
hear of voices in invention, in science, in musical 
harmonies which speak in prophetic tones of 
possibilities of the greater harmonious laws of 
the universe. While listening to some great 
classic production we may trace, in outline, the 
variations, yet wonderful unity and beauty of 
the Cosmos and its revolving cycles. And song, 
that instance of individualism, cultured, capable, 
soaring, yet soothing, inspiring, entrancing, also 
ethical, as we are suited to grasp the passage poured 



What is Truth? 87 

forth in purity of purpose. I noted recently a 
homely instance of this redemptive work, where a 
person had brought out of a lowly musical instru- 
ment unsuspected possibilities. It had been 
used as a one- or two- toned instrument only, but 
this performer produced the full chords and 
intricate harmonies of the best composers. The 
reformer may work in a simple way, but he 
must lift or he is merely a fanatic. 

Then there are the modern schools of thought 
with their many and varied sub-schools, made up 
of good sincere thinkers mainly; they too are 
working in this way, and perhaps with greater 
effect, than any other class. These stalwart souls 
are felling trees, digging out roots and stones, 
ploughing, harrowing, tearing at everything and 
everybody until one desires to creep away into 
the silence, singing very softly for fear of being 
discovered and beaten, 

"Hide me, oh my Saviour, hide, 
Till the storm of life be past: 
Safe into the haven guide, 
O receive my soul at last! 

" Other refuge have I none, 

Hangs my helpless soul on Thee; 
Leave, ah leave me not alone, 
Still support and comfort me; 

11 All my trust on Thee is stayed; 

All my help from Thee I bring; 
Cover my defenceless head 

With the shadow of Thy wing." 



88 He Restoreth My Soul 

Where shall the sweet purifying influence of 
our hymn writers find limitation? Ask mission- 
aries, chaplains of armies, hospitals, prisons, and 
elsewhere. Ask of the miner, the lumber camp 
men, and all workers amongst such places, if these 
hymns do not stay within the memory as little 
links of a chain which draws them home- and God- 
ward. Oh, the cruelty of teaching a doctrine of 
closed inspiration — God shut out — while we are con- 
stantly receiving these little breathings from the 
caressing Father. He does speak to us to-day. 
Oh, believe this for your soul's sake, I pray. 

Not always does He speak in a still, small voice 
of sweet persuasion, but also in the thunderings 
of destiny arid destruction. Not only does He 
speak in plain assertion, but also in strong irony. 
All qualities are His. May not wisdom see fit 
to prove the validity of an argument by bringing 
into prominence every iota of evidence that can be 
found against it? What did Voltaire, Paine, or 
Ingersoll accomplish, if not this ? Did these men 
make unbelievers of earnest, sincere Christians, or 
did they have a following from the intellectual 
drift-wood and that class which is undefinable 
and constant only in its periodical shiftings as the 
stream of unbelieving influence carries it about? 
These noted men, and all such voices, have been 
useful in their way, to try those of the Faith, to give 
argument favourable to the Faith strong reason 
for being presented, to show the awakening world 



What is Truth? 89 

the shallowness of any evidence that man can 
offer against it. We take it there can be no more 
forceful mode of defending a case than to of- 
fer a huge artfully-arranged fabric of argument 
against it, which is not historically and logically 
truthful. We have then presented to us the best 
that can be found of data and reasoning on both 
sides, which procedure is considered, I believe, 
to be the only just defence in jurisprudence, as well 
as in all matters of moment. 

The world-spirit is awakening, the dawn is 
already appearing as a grey misty twilight. All 
the world over men are throwing out the search- 
light across the dim sun- streaked dawn, just as the 
farmer takes his lantern out into the early morning, 
that he may see to feed the flocks and herds, and 
as the lighthouse keeper throws the great piteous, 
helpful radiance over the hungry rock-bound 
coast. 

Peter, whom Christ ordained a prominent 
apostle in the new Church, was asked by Him, 
"Lovest thou Me? Then feed my sheep, tend 
my lambs." Christ taught him that the only 
way to prove this vaunted affection was to assume 
responsibility of the welfare of other souls. The 
tending and caring for souls for future life is the 
only catholic apostleship. All honour to those 
who rise early and go out into the dim and chill 
morning to feed the sheep and tend the lambs 
of the fold of Christ. All honour to those who 



90 He Restoreth My Soul 

stay out of their sleep through the long night that 
they may cast a little of God's kindly radiance out 
over the rock-bound coast of doctrines and tempta- 
tions. The prince of shipwrecked souls is always 
there with his siren song to lure the self-satisfied 
and too careless alike to its treacherous depths. 

Men are digging out old forgotten cities in an 
attempt to throw light on history and lore. It is 
Truth that the world-spirit is begging for to-day, 
because Truth will redeem man to his first estate of 
uprightness, when he stood as in Eden, "Good," 
made in the image of God. 

Primarily, scientific research and criticism has 
no ill-will to the Bible or Christian religion that 
we are aware of; but it is well that science and 
criticism should throw out an exceedingly strong 
search-light on these beliefs of ours which we have 
deduced from these books. My craven friend, 
are you afraid that your idols may fall? Are you 
afraid that your God cannot take care of His own? 
Beware of how you make small of His wisdom 
and omnipotence. Yours is the unbelief, my 
petty friend. I beg of the Church Catholic, and 
the entire thought-world of to-day to grant to 
God and His Word the rights that we enjoy, the 
Magna Charta. Read His Word. He begs us to 
prove Him. He can stand the test. Give Him 
the benefit of ordinary jurisprudence. Put Him 
to His word, and see if He will keep His splendid 
promises. Why should you crucify the very God? 



What is Truth? 91 

If we confess to Him our petty imprudence and 
insulting unbelief, He will overlook it, and Christ 
will be surety for us that we do not be so petty 
and ignorant again. The Mediator of the new 
covenant will be surety for us and pray the Father 
thus, "Oh forgive these weak little children, they 
know not what they do." 

Methinks that in the thousands, nay, maybe 
millions of years to come, this one shame will 
be ever rising at the feast, as did the ghost at 
the banquet in the drama, this shame of civilisa- 
tion, that we attribute character and conduct to 
our perfect Father which we would not tolerate in 
our earthly friends and which no longer obtains 
internationally. I pray of the Holy One that 
critics may cut and slash, pick at and sneer until 
so-called Christianity be relieved of all that 
accumulation of trash that makes her so largely 
ineffective and odious alike to God and man. 

Again, we have voices of mercy and wisdom, 
as embodied in the various hospitals, sanatoriums, 
asylums, orphanages, colleges, and schools. Also 
we might ask, what voice is speaking through 
these international troubles, which, notwithstand- 
ing all that may be said to the contrary, are in 
essence mainly ethical in their origin and issue? 
In the " darkest continent" a Rhodes may be 
a voice crying, "Cast up the highway and gather 
out the stones"; a Kitchener may be a voice 
crying, "Lift up the standard of the one and 



92 He Restore th My Soul 

only nation that truly blesses her colonies and 
tries to lift them upward. ' ' True 

"They do not consider the meaning of things; they consult 

not creed or clan, 
Behold they clap the slave on the back, and behold he 

becometh a man! 
They terribly carpet the earth with dead, and behold 

their cannon cool, 
They walk unarmed by twos and threes to call the living 

to school." 

Has not a Cromer, at the north of this un- 
measured benighted area, been an object-lesson to 
the countless hordes that a people may be kindly 
and wisely governed and thus be happier than in 
barbaric freedom? 

The great benumbed Orient is slowly awakening 
from her trance-like sleep of centuries. We see 
her shivering and sick as she rubs her sleepy eyes 
and the life-blood courses more actively in her 
half-palsied elephantine body. All the horrors 
of war, internecine and internal, have been hers. 
But it is a redemptive work, and is already 
showing marvellous effects, especially in Japan, 
who is fully awake, if not in the individual then as a 
nation. 

Do not make the grave mistake of thinking that 
Providence works only in serene skies. God 
Himself says, "I form the light and create dark- 
ness ; I make peace and create evil ; I am Jehovah 
that doeth all these things." God spoke from 



What is Truth? 93 

heaven to Jesus, testifying thus, "This is my 
beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." This 
same Jesus, having risen, assured His disciples 
thus, "All power has been given unto Me in 
heaven and on earth." If Christianity is our 
religion, we are obliged to believe this. No matter 
what state of confusion exists, we are bound to 
believe that Christ Jesus is bringing about the 
redemption of the earth-physical, as well as the 
earth- spiritual. Remember that the so-called 
millennial age is an earthly period of existence. 
Do not despise as being insignificant the smallest 
action that tends to improvement of earthly 
condition. It is a pennon showing us the course 
of the wind, helping us port-ward. The city 
scavenger who collects the garbage and throws 
it to destruction is doing a redeeming work 
for humanity. Ask your physician if it is not so. 
Good sanitary laws are all redeeming forces. The 
humane inspector for children and domestic 
animals is a messenger of the new era. The 
quarantine is a limitation of evil, as are all wise 
prohibitive measures and usages. These are but 
common-sense precautions ; there is nothing in the 
redemptive work outside of common-sense or car- 
ing for the objective world through the subjective 
world. This is in the world-physical. There is a 
class or school of thought to-day which is doing 
a vast amount of good in a mental and moral 
line, yet, like all others, it too is faulty and 



94 He Restoreth My Soul 

unsuccessful in a degree, also helpful and progress- 
ive in a degree, just in proportion as is the purity 
of its purpose kept clean and wholesome. We re- 
fer to Socialism. This school wields an influence 
which stretches completely over the area controlled 
by Christianised nations. Quite reasonable that 
it should be so, since the Originator had for His 
motto, nay, we must say, for His one word of 
command, "Love one another." We certainly do 
not wish to take the absurd stand that Socialists 
love one another better than do other men. We 
know that there are factions and quarrels, dissen- 
sions and bitterness, just as there is amongst the 
more loudly professed followers of the Lover of 
Men. We know that mainly they do not confess 
to allegiance to the Master. Yet, notwithstanding 
the faults and shortcomings of this vast school, 
they do appear before us to-day heavy with the 
motto of the Lover of Men, by which in process of 
time, a brotherhood of men should be inaugurated 
as an eternal institution. Faulty humanity, im- 
perfect vehicle it is, but laden with a tremendous 
truth, wide as the universe, ageless as the Eternal 
Father. This truth is the life-blood of the Christ, 
nay, it is the Christ. Read the teachings of 
Jesus our Redeemer, and you shall finally con- 
clude with me that where there is no really literal 
law of " Bear ye one another's burdens," no " Love 
one another," in that place shall be found no 
Christ. 



What is Truth? 95 

As no two faces are precisely alike, neither are 
two minds alike ; therefore the personal redemptive 
duty would naturally present itself to each mind 
from a different standpoint or view, both in place 
and degree, as slightly obligatory to that of being 
an absorbing passion — as it was with Jesus, as of 
doing the duty lying easily near you, or of the 
great master-passion that is only satisfied with a 
redeemed world — as was the passion of Jesus, the 
Lover of Men. From a lazy unproductive desire 
that human affairs were in a happier condition, 
to that very tornado of inspiration which sweeps 
away every obstacle and leaves in its trail a way 
for possible progress, such was and is the inspira- 
tion of Jesus. We see in nature this same diversity 
of measure, the softly drawn breathing of the 
new-born infant, and the hurricane or cyclone 
which leaves desolation in its tortuous pathway, 
the dainty crystal snowflake which clings to the 
window pane, the great avalanche which comes 
tearing down the mountainside resistlessly crush- 
ing and dragging all obstacles before it in its awful, 
determined haste, the dewdrop and the ocean, the 
grain of sand and the shore that bound the sea; 
and so in the impulses and energies of mankind do 
we find this diversity of measure. May we not 
easily see in this diversity of talent, concep- 
tion, and measure of energy a most wise pur- 
pose, namely, to make of the varied parts one 
grand whole, to make of aggregated humanity 



96 He Restoreth My Soul 

one whole, grand Man. This Zeitgeist or this 
Man should not be moulded by this "ism," or 
that cultus, by this philosophical reasoning, or 
that physical training, or by this or that specific 
plan, but by a wise unity of it all. This perfected 
Man, this Zeitgeist, is neither a fanatical monk 
nor stoic. He is a grandly, splendidly developed 
creature. Every phase of physical organism 
must be brought to and maintained at its highest 
possibility. The mind must not be all science, 
all literature, all religion, all commerce, all 
pleasure or all labour, all art or all producing 
from nature. The all-man, each unit of whom is 
living at his highest and purest, body, mind, and 
soul, can only be such as his environment permits 
of. Just as this is true of the unit, so it is true 
of the whole. 

Therefore, Jesus gave only a common-sense 
admonition to His followers when He advised or 
commanded them to love one another, and to 
bear one another's burdens. The author of a 
learned critique, a Socialist, and a Salvation Army 
lassie may all in their particular way love their fel- 
lows and try to help to bear and lighten the burden 
of suffering humanity. The author of the critique 
may desire to prove all things and hold fast only 
that which is good and true, not for himself only, 
but also for the less enlightened of the race. The 
Socialist may be rilled to overflowing with a 
determination to reform the labour and commer- 



What is Truth ? 97 

cial systems of the day and thus elevate mankind 
and alleviate their sufferings, and the modest, fear- 
less lassie may put forth a helping hand to lift 
up the fallen, give courage to the pitifully op- 
pressed, and hope to the hopeless. 

More than six centuries ago, it pleased Provi- 
dence to place upon the throne of England a man 
who stands peerless amongst a long line of sover- 
eigns of varied character and disposition, peerless 
in an unenviable greatness, great in his smallness, 
vastly resourceful in his pettiness and despicable 
cruelties. His butchering and torturings were 
done in such a mean highwayman style, that the 
stalking shade of Nero would pass him by in 
contempt, and would not recognise in John of 
England a colleague in the same school. 

But who shall say that John had no message 
for the human race? This unfortunate historic 
personage was, in truth, an incarnate voice of 
progress and prosperity. At first this voice 
was low and tantalising, sibilant like the humming 
of the stinging insect, but gradually increasing 
in its intensity with the passing years until it 
became such a roar and rage, as of a beast of 
prey, that its resonant tones vibrated up and down 
the green-clad hills and vales of old England till 
with a yawning shudder she awoke from subcon- 
scious infancy and began to really live. Her soul 
had been born. 

Down by a clear running stream was begotten an 



98 He Restoreth My Soul 

eternal thing called the "Magna Charta." We 
need not pause to explain its nature and signifi- 
cance, all the modern world knows, aye, and at 
times feels just what it means. England awoke and 
became a living nation that day; and just as she 
keeps unstained her charter vows shall she be 
great, shall she be victorious over difficulties, shall 
she live. A soulless thing quickly disintegrates. 

On a throne now sits the antitype of this mean- 
est sovereign of the greatest nation the world has 
ever known. But, alas! the antitype occupies a 
throne that radiates a vastly greater and infinitely 
wider influence than even our far-reaching Em- 
pire. His name we may call Ethocrat, his empire 
is Zeitgeist, his governmental seat is Equity. It lies 
between the realms of Life and Light, and Death 
and Darkness. At the meeting of the ways be- 
tween Life and Light is an open gateway leading 
out into this dual realm of Glory. At the meet- 
ing of the ways between Death and Darkness is 
also a gateway leading out into that dual realm 
of Horror. In the city of Equity sits Ethocrat on 
a lofty throne, with his back turned to Light and 
Life, and his face towards Death and Darkness. 
The strong radiance from behind throws a shadow 
before him, a silhouette of his person, which in his 
dim vision he deems to be a roadway to some 
desirable country. 

Thinking this, he hurries his army along this 
treacherous path in search of more domain, until 



What is Truth ? 99 

many heedlessly push through the gate of Dark- 
ness and Death and are lost on the sunless sands, 
or slip down into some horrid, airless, torrential 
abyss, or into the ageless volumes of Chaos. 
The voice of the antitype has long enough sent 
out its sibilant whispers; already the resonant 
notes are reverberating through civilisation; the 
one-time sleeping soul of the Zeitgeist is awakening, 
nay, is awake. Already her barons are assembling 
to march upon the tyrant who sits upon the throne 
of Equity where only Justice should be found, 
and not Tyranny. Soon we shall have a Magna 
Charta for our growing world-spirit. God speed 
the day. We hope for the day when on some 
green meadow by some living stream this charter 
shall be signed or sealed by this Ethocrat which 
shall complete the antitype. Then shall we have 
justice, no arbitrary arrest of thought, trial by 
jury by one's own peers, justice neither sold, de- 
layed, nor denied, along with protection of life and 
liberty, all this in the domain of Thought. It is 
said that John frequently broke his charter, but 
even so, it lives and is active to-day, and shall al- 
ways live and be active. Such a charter in the 
Thought Realm shall soon be ratified. It will 
doubtless frequently be broken, but it will live, aye, 
shall and must live while our souls shall live. // is 
the life-blood of the soul. The type brought young 
growing life to a nation, the antitype brings devel- 
opment and healthy sanity in the minds of men. 



ioo He Restoreth My Soul 

To obtain this charter of Justice is a part of 
the second phase of religion. It is a most pro- 
minent initial step in redemptive procedure, in 
so far as it tends to give freedom and opportunity 
to form-bound humanity, in order that we may 
mature mentally, and, most of all, spiritually. 

When the apostle saw in vision the new Jerusa- 
lem descending from God, he also heard a voice 
saying that the nations should bring all their 
honour and glory into it. 

What is the honour and glory of a nation? 
For it alone is that which they may bring into the 
Holy City. Our Lord told His disciples that 
before this should take place there should be 
great tribulation, that the sun should be darkened, 
the moon be dimmed, the stars fall from their 
lofty height, and the powers of the heavens should 
be shaken; that the tribes of the earth should 
mourn when they saw the Son of Man coming. 

In this notable vision, John heard a voice from 
out the throne saying, "The tabernacle of God 
is with men, and He shall dwell with them and 
they shall be His people and God Himself shall 
be with them : and He shall wipe away every tear 
from their eyes: and death shall be no more: 
neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor 
pain any more: the first things are passed away." 
This, then, is a brief picture of the redeemed 
world. 

If the kings and nations shall bring their honour 



What is Truth? 101 

and glory into it, then it is obvious that there is 
no honour or glory in that man or system or 
nation that causes tears, pain, sorrow, death, or 
anything that maketh an abomination, or unclean- 
ness, or that causeth or inventeth a lie. Now we 
ask you to examine before the tribunal of the 
post-mosaic code of Christ all systems of people 
and nations, in all phases of commerce, society, 
religion, and everything that pertains to our 
mundane affairs: then judge if there be cause for 
the tribes of the earth to mourn when they see 
the Son of Man coming. Do they not say, as was 
foretold, " My Lord tarry eth," and they pause not 
in conducting these criminal wrongs and in- 
decencies of modern mundane commercial and 
social existence. We learn that want, sorrow, 
oppression, lies, or death shall in no wise enter 
this model city : but we also learn that the nations 
shall bring their honour and glory into it. We 
would take it that the honour or glory of a nation 
is the same as that of the human entity — com- 
pleteness, graceful symmetry, physical health, 
and proportionate development of physical and 
intellectual condition. Sound organically and in 
outward appearance, living his splendidly highest 
possibility. 

It would seem to be primarily the chiefest thing 
that there be no filth or cruelty brought into the 
city. We have quoted the pessimistic side of con- 
ditions as we find them to-day, but we rejoice to 



102 He Restoreth My Soul 

know that there is also an optimist's side as well. 
While nominally Christian nations are as yet far 
from Christlike, in large degree, in detail of minor 
workings, still we see eminent excellence slowly 
arising from them, like the tide on the ocean. 
There is a phase of this rising excellence that is 
unparalleled in history; it is this, that the sover- 
eigns of the greatest, most influential nations 
are trying to act like Christian men on whom 
we may depend that they will try to do right, men 
whom we may honour and even love without losing 
our self-respect. In reading comparative his- 
tory, we find this to be simply wonderful. I fancy 
it must have been this to which Christ referred 
when He said, "Then shall appear the sign of the 
Son of Man in heaven" (high places). It is the 
most pregnant sign of this era. It is a little 
cloud the size of a man's hand, but look for the 
rain that it portends. The sun, moon, stars, and 
heavens seem to have, in figure, designated the 
higher powers of the earth. So we would look for 
a sign amongst the highest governments. We 
know that men who are kings in the thought- 
realm, or of the actual nations, are not really 
good (who is really good?), but that they aim at 
and desire to be good — that is hope for the despond- 
ent soul of man. Have not we, in spite of the 
many grievous systems that do so perniciously 
exist, much that may be considered "honour and 
glory of nations," much that lessens sorrow and 



What is Truth? 103 

alleviates pain, much that seeks for truth and 
to relieve oppression? It is necessary that at this 
crisis nations and systems should, as it were, 
"take stock" in order to hold fast only that which 
is good, and destroy all that which is found to be 
evil, injurious, mere poisonous rubbish. 

If the Holy City, to be, were only a phantasma 
of an Utopian dreamer, this sort of talk would be 
fanatical and useless, if not impudent and silly. 
All schools of theology in all climes are, we are 
told, expecting a Great One who shall come 
to perfect the poor sin- sick world. The theology 
of the Christian world certainly teaches this if it 
teaches anything. Many of the foremost Bible 
students who are following Scripture prophecy 
closely as they see its fulfilment rapidly drawing 
to a finish are expecting the Advent, as many term 
it now. If this reasonable hope of the Christian 
be sanely grounded, then is it fanatical, or should it 
be useless, is it impudent or can it be silly to beg of 
kings and nations to see to it that they shall have 
a goodly showing of honour and glory to bring to 
this radiant city, when she shall be observed 
to have come, so that they may not be too greatly 
ashamed before the King of nations? 

In sketching, however imperfectly, the second 
phase of religion, or this ethical redemptive work 
for the betterment of the physical, intellectual, 
and moral status of the world that is, we shall 
find no phase of it that we may not accept, and 



104 He Restoreth My Soul 

hold only the firmer to the Master's code, as it is 
all contained therein; but we must make one. 
reservation, namely, that every voice shall sound 
in His name. 

Jesus taught His followers that His kingdom 
was in the midst of them, or within them ; then 
the Holy City must be there too. Surely the capi- 
tal of a country is within its borders. Hope of 
entering this city, or Christliness, is, perhaps, the 
same as " Christ within you, the hope of glory." 
Christ taught that the only way to work for 
Him and with Him was to work for the good of each 
other, to minister to Him was to minister to the 
children. He courted, nor recognised, none other 
homage. As we note the helpful achievements 
of the last and present centuries, the stir of pre- 
paration which is taking place, we feel convinced 
that the court of Christ is already in session. Be 
assured, the Presence is certainly strengthening. 
Remember, ''Every knee shall bow, every nation 
shall acknowledge His name." 

There is no class for whom we have such mourn- 
ful forebodings as the orthodox and popular 
nominal Christian Church. They alone have 
the Law and the Prophets, as did their prototype, 
the Jew, at the time when the Voice became 
incarnate. Read all the sorrowful forebodings for 
her to be found in the Scripture which are to take 
place during the last days. Will they, of all 
people, put Him to a shameful death, after a 



What is Truth? 105 

prejudiced mock- trial, as did their prototype, 
fearing for their class distinction? Shall pro- 
phecy be entirely fulfilled? Will the prototype 
entirely complete itself? We hope so, for, al- 
though the Lord did say that He had planted 
a vineyard with choicest vines and it had borne 
Him only wild grapes, although He declared 
that He would take away the hedge and break 
down the fence thereof and it should be waste and 
trodden down, and it should not be hoed or tilled, 
but be given to briars and thorns and that no rain 
should fall on it, all this because the Lord looked 
for judgment from them and, behold, oppression, 
looked for righteousness and, behold, a cry, still 
He will save the Church. The Lord will correct 
evil, He does not punish in bitter, impotent 
revenge. Tenderly He assures them, " For a small 
moment have I forsaken thee, but with great 
mercies will I gather you up." "Ina little wrath 
I hid my face from them for a moment, but with 
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on them, 
saith the Lord, thy redeemer." " It shall be a day 
which is known unto the Lord, not day and not 
night, but at evening time there shall be light." 
"And it shall come to pass that that day living 
waters shall flow out of Jerusalem, half toward the 
eastern sea, and half toward the western sea, in 
summer and winter shall it be, and the Lord shall 
be king over all the earth." "In that day shall 
the Lord be one, and His name one." Then 



106 He Restoreth My Soul 

shall all the many voices of the earth catch up the 
strain that the angels sang two thousand years ago. 
Then shall our weary old world hear such melodious 
harmonies as she must have long since despaired 
of hearing, and the children of the race, in listen- 
ing wonder, will learn the heaven-born strain and 
join in the ever-swelling song. God well pleased 
with men, peace on earth. A redeemed world, 
the mature earth. 

The wee babe tries to walk, totters and falls; 
the parents smile indulgently, "Try it again, 
darling!" The babe arrives at the time of man- 
hood, he can walk erect and the parents look on 
him proudly. If he fall in his attempt to walk 
after he reaches maturity, he is either sleep-walking, 
or ill, or he is walking in a very slippery, danger- 
ous place, or he stumbles over an obstacle through 
carelessness. We are so very much grown up now 
that we cannot plead the weakness or ignorance 
of infancy. "The times of ignorance God over- 
looked; but now he commandeth men, that they 
should all everywhere repent; inasmuch as He 
hath appointed a day in which He will judge the 
world in righteousness by the man whom He hath 
ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto 
all men, in that He hath raised Him from the 
dead." He whom God hath ordained has taught 
us that all these works for the uplifting of human- 
ity, as regards the life that now is, must be included 
in His evangel, but it is not all of His evangel, or 



What is Truth? 107 

approaching all of it. It is, as compared with 
the whole, as the dewdrop is to the great ocean; 
like a lighted candle to the gleaming sun; as a 
ray of light creeping through a small prism to the 
bow of the dome in the heavens; the infant's soft 
breath to the aerial zone that belts us. But given 
that we do attain to this high earthly existence, 
could that satisfy our souls? No, a thousand 
times no, for in the process of attaining to that 
condition, our aims, hopes, and inspired expecta- 
tions would rise to meet the future possibilities, 
we should know that our wayside struggles were 
but difficult steps to a throne. When once the 
gleam and glint of the Radiance has pierced 
the film that now dulls our vision and obscures 
from us the light of the morning, we shall be 
drawn upward and eternity -ward by the irresistible 
influence of our Creator. 

In closing the subject of this second phase of 
religious life, we still find ourselves in grave 
dilemma. The chapter regarding the second 
office of the soul had taken us just this far. This 
perfect earth-life, we said, was merely prudence, 
it was but rational condition, nothing more than 
a well-appointed physical but temporary abiding 
place for us. Granted, for a moment, that we do 
not desire continuity of existence after this life, 
why can we not even attain to this blessed 
condition for our present comfort and well-being? 
In answering this we shall find that the God- 



108 He Restoreth My Soul 

given law of Self-preservation has become a per- 
verted law, known to us as Selfishness, which 
renders us unfit to properly and sanely fill our 
second office, viz., our relation to our fellows, 
and blinds our vision as to the third office, viz., 
our attitude toward our parental Creator. Hence 
our weakness. Hence our unhappy condition as a 
social and physical world. 

But we do desire happy continuity of life. 
Then it follows that we wish to know the way to 
obtain it. Therefore we shall find that if selfish- 
ness is a perversion, or subversion, of the original 
good law, or instinct, and brings us to destruction, 
then logically the original good law, if obeyed, 
should bring us life eternal. 

We have found ourselves helplessly unable to 
return to this original and most desirable state of 
sanity, as a race, without some potential change 
which shall be radical and intrinsic in its reverting 
qualities. Our Scriptures make explicit assertion 
for our benefit on this point, viz., as in Adam all 
die, so in Christ we shall all be made alive. Then 
we find this potential change is affected in Christ, 
or by Christ only. We must see then that from 
Adam to Christ is the delectable pathway to un- 
ending bliss. To struggle with Christ through 
the thorny, rugged, chaotic road of life, up into 
this delectable pathway of unending bliss, this is 
the soul's last and triumphant office. This is the 
regeneration of the soul, is Christ, our Leader. 



What is Truth? 109 

"Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, 

Lead Thou me on: 
The night is dark, and I am far from home, 

Lead Thou me on: 
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene; one step enough for me. 

"Meanwhile along the narrow rugged path 
Thyself hast trod, 
Lead, Saviour, lead me home in childlike faith, 

Home to my God; 
To rest for ever, after earthly strife, 
In the calm light of Everlasting Life." 



CHAPTER V 

WHERE IS CHRIST? — OUR FAITH AS A NATION 

"Until philosophers are kings, and the princes of this 
world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political 
greatness and wisdom meet in one, cities will never cease 
from ill — no, nor the human race, as I believe — and then 
only will our state have a possibility of life, and see the 
light of day." 

Plato. 

"And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they 
strengthened their hands for the good work. ... So 
we built the wall; and the wall was ioined together unto 
half the length thereof; for the people had a mind to work." 

Nehemiah ii. 18, iv. 6. 

1WAS called up from my sleep one midnight to 
share the view of a fine comet which spread its 
great dazzling plumes along the upper heavens like 
a titan swan. And so it appeared to the children 
whom I induced to leave their warm nest that they 
too might see this rare wonder in the midnight 
heavens. At first the little ones looked around 
them, then in reproach and disgust they cried to 
me, "Why did you awaken us and bring us out 
into the cold night? We are so sleepy." I said 
to them, ''Look into the sky and see the big star 
with the silvery tail." They answered, "We see 

no 



Where is Christ? in 

nothing but the dipper, the North Star, and all 
the little stars. We often see them. Let us go 
back to our sleep." Then I said, ''Children, look 
straight above your heads!" They looked and 
saw. No querulous complaints now, just a faint 
shiver and terrorised "Oh," and a creeping up 
close to me in mortal fear. I had difficulty in 
soothing them to rest again. 

Have you looked in the right place for the 
Christ, my friend, or having seen His form in the 
midnight heavens, has He appeared to you as 
the beautiful swan who broods over the young 
in loving motherliness, or has He appeared to 
you as the devouring enemy of mythical lore? Is 
He life to you, or destruction? 

If we weak and faulty ones have been called out 
of our sleepy comfort to behold this Radiant Star 
that has trailed the dome of heaven from Adam's 
natal day till now, and still He sinks not in the 
western horizon, will you not stand aside, you 
older ones, you more experienced ones, you who 
know Him as He is, you who have long had Him 
mirrored in your hearts, you who have been so 
greatly privileged? You will not object, I am 
sure, to stand aside whilst we and the children 
examine His beauty and learn to adore Him as 
you do. The little ones are quite as precious 
in His sight as the great ones, for He Himself has 
said, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven." Per- 
sonally I have not reached your heights, so I 



ii2 He Restoreth My Soul 

prefer to stay with the simple, seeking children. 
We shall search for Him together, and perhaps, 
who knows, we shall find Him eventually. 

The gospels tell us of the conception, birth, 
childhood, and maturity of Jesus — with this all 
are familiar. We have the account of how He 
became developed and perfected through trial 
and suffering. Jesus was foreordained for His 
high mission when Adam fell; He was trained for 
it from conception by prenatal influence, and all 
the way up till He became a man of about thirty 
years of age, at which time He felt called to preach 
the thing that He alone knew, that God was our 
Father, and His Kingdom was now to be estab- 
lished on earth and that it was possible for men to 
become sons of God, and live eternally; and He 
taught us how to do it. He was at that time 
Jesus, the ordained teacher or prophet of the 
Father, the Logos, just as far as was necessary to 
implant the Kingdom. He was recognised by a 
few as bearing all the characteristics of the long- 
promised Messiah. But they, as all Jews did, ex- 
pected His immediate reign, and it would almost 
seem as if He too was expecting it sooner than it 
was to be accomplished. Who can tell? We 
think that the Father fully confided in Him at 
the awful hour of Gethsemane, or so it appears 
to us. 

The Church of Judaism had become incrusted in 
a formal ritualistic worship of God that was in 



Where is Christ? 113 

practice little better than that of the heathen 
nations by whom they were surrounded. A 
very few retained the esoteric faith. So the mass 
of religionists did not understand Jesus or why 
He should make such claims, as He certainly did, 
toward the last of His ministry (not before). To 
give them justice, which all should have, they had 
no idea that He was the Messiah that they were 
looking for as a nation with so much anticipation 
of glory. This man troubled them about personal 
and private purity ; that was not the work for the 
King of the Jews, that was temple work. They 
could attend to that as suited them best. He 
refused to be great, as they saw greatness, so 
they in no way believed Him to be the Messiah 
of prophecy. This is very evident and He also 
Himself said, " Father, forgive them, they know 
not what they do." So they slew Him on a cross 
in company with thieves. In reading this account, 
we find that Jesus was under unusual and awful 
strain during these last hours. We are sure it 
was not from dread of death, for He had claimed 
power to lay down his life and take it up again at 
will. No, it was not that. That the Father re- 
vealed some tremendous knowledge and respon- 
sibility to Him is quite sure. Small wonder 
that He was exceeding sorrowful. The account 
tells us that He was crucified, was dead and buried, 
but on the third day He arose and was seen of 
many, and quite frequently for a time. That 



ii4 He Restoreth My Soul 

before leaving off this intimacy with His believers 
He stated to them that all authority had been 
given to Him, both in heaven and on earth. It 
would seem that He had arisen from being the one 
perfect Son of Man to be the one perfect Son of 
God also ; He had come into His heritage. He had 
become Jesus the Messiah in full. This is why 
we may not ignore Him. This is where we shall 
find Him, at the right hand or next in position 
to the Father, speaking the words of the Father, 
issuing the commands of the Father to the min- 
istering spirits, those obedient holy ones who love 
to do the work of the Father and care for us 
poor weak children; this beautiful, helpful execu- 
tive, of whom Christ warned us so severely not to 
refuse, or, worse, to blaspheme. 

The ever-shifting lights of doctrines make the 
mystic Trinity a little difficult to comprehend at 
times, and perhaps we are a little puzzled at best, 
especially we small children. The known world 
stands to-day in awe, and even in fear, of the re- 
ligion of this mystic Unity in Trinity. The na- 
tions that confess to this creed stand before the 
rest of the peoples at this era as synonymous for 
national power and invincible influence. One 
little bright-eyed nation, having in lapse of 
time pretty well outgrown her old religion, was 
quite ready to accept Christianity as she found it in 
our Scriptures, and as some missionaries taught it 
to her, but on coming amongst us, carefully search- 



Where is Christ? 115 

ing, as wise men do, for the fruits, or working 
result of it, in our territory, she was much dis- 
appointed and is still waiting for better assurance 
before adopting it as her state form of worship, 
in the meantime testing as many of our western 
theories and customs as is practical for her 
people. 

It has been said that Jesus and His mission are 
a failure. Was Jesus mistaken in His mission? 
Was His evangel untruthful and fanatical? We as 
individual souls have a right to ask these questions 
and to have them satisfactorily answered before 
we stake our eternal existence on this belief, or 
even allow it to imperil our earthly career. Can 
we discover evidence that the era of Jesus has 
produced better results than the previous nineteen 
centuries, and can we be assured that any results 
that may be found to be superior are without 
doubt traceable to Him in any way, or are they 
merely evolutionary development? First we may 
reasonably ask, "Do nations evolve, or do they 
only mature ?" 

About twenty centuries before our era began, 
we are told Abraham was called by God out of 
Ur of the Chaldees to be progenitor of a typical 
race. Did this symbolic family reach their 
highest estate by evolutionary development, and 
does that truly describe their growth? We think 
not, for in about 300 years it had become a great 
and numerous people, and it was instructed by God 



n6 He Restoreth My Soul 

to escape from Egypt where it was then held in 
severe bondage. It was numerically great enough 
to become a separate nation. This people reached 
its highest state as a nation in less than iooo years 
and has since been subjected to all the wretched 
phases of captivity, dispersion, and homelessness. 
If nations evolve, what a vast state would it be 
to-day, this child of the Chaldeans ! 

The Chaldean himself seems to come before our 
mind as a heavily-mailed warrior who had left his 
tomb for a brief moment and stalked forth in the 
dark grey of early morning. His feet had trodden 
the halls of a dreamy and mysterious past. When 
he first appears before our searching ken he comes 
not as a growing man, but rather as a splendid 
spectre arising from out a brilliant but receding 
greatness. Royal are his trappings, astonishing 
his learning, fragments of which he brought with 
him at this ghostly appearing to fling amongst 
his growing successors. An Arabian breeze dis- 
pelled the phantom body and now he lies in his 
ancient tomb at rest. He has had his day of birth, 
maturity, old age, and now he rests in peace. 
But he is not evolving, that I can see. 

Babylonia, Assyria, Medo-Persia in turn arose, 
matured, declined or fell, and as great nations 
have passed into ancient history. Egypt, splen- 
did Egypt, with her weird colossal relics of a 
magnificent past, now lies quietly in an almost 
dreamless sleep, interesting only as a huge curio. 



Where is Christ? 117 

Greece and Rome, stately empires, each in turn 
seemingly possessed of deathless splendour, 
strength, and vitality — they too lie in state with 
the illustrious dead in God's great sky- vaulted, 
earth-paved cathedral. 

Needless to repeat weird stories of dead empires 
and states in South America, dead and forgotten 
before the Spaniard dreamed of her tropical 
jungles, her flower-laden plains and noble rivers, 
and the poor old Orient with her ageless series of 
empires. There is some evidence of dissolution 
in many nations to-day. 

I do not think history substantiates the theory 
of constant and continuous evolutionary develop- 
ment of a state. Our empire is not a deathless 
one from an ordinary standpoint, nor are we a 
nation of gods. We do not claim perfection as 
being already accomplished in our empire, far 
from it, but we do claim to see that a deep-rooted 
feeling is prevalent and underlying all move- 
ments, that wrongs must be rectified. This is the 
breathings of the Holy Spirit preparing the way 
for the King of Glory to come in and rule over us. 
Shall we be a light to the world or a byword and 
derision in the future? Naturally, those with 
great interests are of more value to make the whole 
good as they are more dangerous to retain evil. 
For this reason, I would beseech of the executive 
of Church and State to uncover their heads before 
God and pray for clean, undivided hearts, and for 



n8 He Restore th My Soul 

guidance in all the minutiae of private life and 
public endeavour. 

While Jesus' Kingdom was not of this world 
still there was to be always a little leaven which 
should eventually leaven the whole lump. Though 
Christendom hide her face in shame for her unholy 
career, still, underlying all evil, falseness, selfish 
luxury, and criminal indifference, is not our antici- 
pation justifiable when we see the great advance- 
ment we have made and are making? We feel 
convinced that the leaven is working abundantly 
though quietly, and soon our Empire will herself 
be eating of the bread of life and also feeding her 
brethren with the same. That is Christ's coming. 

I have heard a Socialist contend that the old 
Roman Empire gave greater liberty to the working 
class than is accorded them to-day in our land. 
What! When two thirds of the population were 
slaves whom a master might stab at his capricious 
will and have tossed carelessly into the Tiber, 
with a loose jest and no questions asked or ex- 
pected? Marriage had almost fallen into disuse, 
even amongst the nobility. Then what moral 
condition should we expect amongst the slaves? 
It is said that there was peace in the Roman 
Empire at the time of the birth of our Lord, 
the Pax Romana. It was but a short silence in 
honour of the birth of the Prince of Peace. The 
Empire, as a whole, was one continuous scene of 
cruel and incessant strife, murder, licentiousness, 



Where is Christ? 119 

and tyranny. It grew worse rather than better 
until its disruption. Surely there were grounds 
for the story that the founder of Rome was foster- 
child to a wolf ! 

But while the Roman Empire was slowly dying 
an ignominious death from her suicidal habits 
there was throughout her declining Empire being 
nurtured by God a new kingdom. The succession 
of great nations had appeared in serial order, had 
almost ended. Rome, as Empress of the World, 
lay dying. In time we see her draw her last con- 
vulsive breath. Pagan, cruel Rome lay pulseless 
in death, and all Europe rejoiced at her passing. 

If these old empires succeeded each other in 
power and territory, they were finally to be suc- 
ceeded by a kingdom that was to be the first of its 
kind, not a phoenix that arose from out the ashes 
of the latest state, but one that was to conquer the 
whole earth and all peoples. If phoenix it were, 
it arose not from out the ashes of any earthly 
empire, but from a greater serial order than they. 
The reigning prince of this house was not successor 
to a Ptolemy, Xerxes, or a Caesar, neither a son of 
Jupiter nor Jove, but was the Son of Man and 
of the Living God. His serial order was the priest- 
ly order of Melchizedek of the royal line of the 
Most High and the children of the race. Did he 
begin His reign at the time that He passed through 
the gates of death and finally out of sight at His 
ascension? Has the beautiful appearance that 



120 He Restoreth My Soul 

we have noted in the heavens performed a pro- 
portionate arc of the circling dome above us? If 
so, is He now nearing the horizon? 

Three hundred years after the Incarnation, we 
see Const an tine making Christianity the state 
religion of the pagan Roman Empire. Little 
more than a century before this, we see that noble 
heathen philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, persecuting 
the same body. Why? Because they were striv- 
ing after political power, were striving after the 
"kingdoms of this world," a thing that Christ 
had refused to accept from Satan. Not until the 
end were the kingdoms of this world to belong 
to Christ. That the Christians were striving 
after temporal power rather than Christlike purity 
is proven by the fact that they were so power- 
ful a political factor in a few years that Rome 
was forced into political unity with them. His- 
tory sometimes claims that Constantine became 
a Christian. Certainly he did become a nominal 
Christian of the same class as those to whom 
he gave so great a concession. Not so often does 
history tell us that a sort of political phase of 
this nominal Christianity and an indifferent 
phase of idolatry were thus united. This is em- 
phasised by the speedy further corruption of this 
state Church by political intrigue and greedy 
and heathen practices. Indeed, Constantine 
sounded the death-knell of the real Church when 
he made it a state religion. The professed 



Where is Christ? 121 

followers of Christ had conceded to Satan that 
which Christ had strenuously refused him, that is, 
to be united with the temporal government of the 
world. 

There has always been the "little leaven" in 
the visible Church or the real in the merely nomi- 
nal Church, the woman in the wilderness. These 
could not hope to live in unity with this cor- 
rupted body. Nor did they. The many and 
varied atrocities arose, not from the example or 
teaching of Christ or His true followers, but from 
the despair of dying Rome, who vainly sought 
to retain her supremacy over Europe. Christ's 
Spiritual Kingdom had begun, it was in the very 
air they breathed. Then Satan must use a 
spiritual kingdom to conquer Christ's Spiritual 
Kingdom. Hence the wonderful political power in 
the past of the nominal Christian Church, in its 
entirety. And it did conquer as a world power. 
Christ's universal religion is not yet accomplished, 
but is drawing very near. All the while (and 
now) the Prince of Evil has tempted the Church 
with the same bait as he did Jesus in the wilder- 
ness. All the kingdoms of the world should be 
theirs if they only would bow to his will. And 
they bowed. Christ did not. 

The persecuting element of the Church nominal 
has, by the overruling of Providence, been pro- 
ductive of good, in that it has always kept a 
nucleus of souls very near to Christ and to His 



122 He Restoreth My Soul 

religion: a few who should hold fast to truth, 
as leaven, for the coming bread of life for the 
children. 

History tells us of the throes of mediaeval Europe 
while her states were being formed as they now 
stand: each striving after the balance of power, 
each in turn and at once seeking the influence of 
Rome and her lord the Pope or Bishop. 

Then, at intervals, followed the various move- 
ments of reform, with the always accompanying 
carnage and unmeasurable suffering of the dissent- 
ing people. Since then there has been a little 
shifting of landmarks, but very little. Persecu- 
tion is still rife, but only trifling as compared with 
the former internecine horrors. 

We see Labour rising over Capital like the 
ocean tide on the sleepy sands which hold it 
enclosed. We see men delving into the annals of a 
forgotten past, digging from the ruins of antiq- 
uity data which change or influence belief for all 
time. We see many who already march under 
the banner of Jesus examining more analytically 
into the code or constitution of the Prince of 
Peace. 

We have inquired as to whether there is any 
evidence that the world has advanced in the 
Christian era other than it would have done in a 
natural development of evolution. But we find 
that nations do not evolve, but are rather subject 
to a serial order of birth, maturity, and decay, or 



Where is Christ? 123 

senile old age. In no case has a state lived and 
continued to grow and develop but for a certain 
term, somewhat analogous to a human life. 
To-day we borrow art and literature from them, 
and who shall say that the more remote ages had 
not forgotten some scientific truths that we have 
not yet stumbled upon? No modern splendour 
approaches the priceless magnificence of these old 
sovereignties. Why then did they not become 
immortal? May we not conclude that they fell 
into the universally prevalent error of living for 
self-aggrandisement and the pleasures of sensu- 
ous existence. The higher life was a hope that 
a few essayed to dream of, but alas! how few 
to practise. 

If a human soul desires immortality, he must 
destroy his self-love. It is the Law of Life. So 
have — and shall — empires and world metropolises 
lived or died by this same Law of Life. Self-love 
is suicide. "The soul that sinneth shall die." 

If a splendid state exist only that it may aston- 
ish and eclipse the world and leave a collection 
of marvels behind it, that state will soon pass into 
silence, though it may be the silence of an inter- 
esting old ruin. 

If a state exist only that each unit of it shall 
have the highest opportunity for progress and 
best moral training, greatest opportunity to grow 
Godward, when shall such a state die? 

There comes to each human soul and also each 



124 He Restoreth My Soul 

national soul alike at some time the "handwriting 
on the wall." If it be " found wanting" the 
blight of destruction is already there. The many 
nominally Christian nations of our day are now 
being weighed. The hand will write something, 
be assured. There will be no mistakes. 

Is the Kingdom of Christ Jesus appearing 
amongst us, or was His mission a failure? We have 
above noted the unprecedented attitude of our 
crowned heads of Christendom, namely, that they 
are, with few exceptions, trying to be good and 
just, even religious. We do not claim for them 
freedom from weakness or faults. That would 
be absurd. Christ alone had that distinction. 
But that they desire it personally, and what is 
vastly more important, that they know that 
the Zeitgeist demands, at least, a marked meas- 
ure of wisdom and good endeavour from them, 
is certainly reason for great hope. And may 
we not judge from many points of view that 
the ruling class to-day feel infinitely more their 
responsibility than their superiority over their 
subjects? 

Then, nationally and internationally, what a 
change has come about since Cyrus and his army 
crept through the watergates and overpowered 
the besotted Babylonians, since Julius Caesar and 
Anthony allowed the great Roman Empire to 
become secondary in importance to the company 
of a seductive Cleopatra. Fancy, if you can, 



Where is Christ? 125 

one of our reigning sovereigns of Christendom 
setting fire to the capital that he might gratify his 
artistic taste in fireworks, as did the fiendish Nero 
at the commencement of this era. 

Before our era, war was not a prelude to peace, 
but rather the pulsing life-blood of the nations. 
States seldom existed side by side, co-equal for 
long periods of time. One would gain supremacy, 
then another would conquer, and thus was war- 
fare carried on with unabated zeal, greed, and 
lust of power. As the last of the great octopus 
powers grew feeble and faint and with a despair- 
ing struggle had drawn her benumbed tentacles 
up underneath her palsied body, there had been 
born a new world-spirit. Follow the history 
of mediaeval Europe down to our present time 
and note this one peculiar and wholly radical 
change in their international polity. We do not 
contend that there has been, or is, no reaching 
after supreme prestige or influence ; that would 
be confessed ignorance; but we do contend that 
the nations that confess to the name of Jesus 
Christ have eventually settled down to a great 
unprecedented brotherhood. A quarrelsome fam- 
ily at times, but with a family's unity, none the 
less. "International Law" itself is a marvel 
compared with the past history of nations. The 
small states of Europe are quite as safe from 
encroachment as are the small children in the 
family from their bigger brothers. Surely we are 



126 He Restoreth My Soul 

learning the lesson of love and unity that the 
Master left us. ''Blessed are the meek for they 
shall inherit the earth." "Blessed are the peace- 
makers for they shall be called the sons of God." 
So it is meekness and peacefulness that wins at 
this last and greatest goal. The victories of 
Hercules and Alexander would be useless now. 
Physical prowess and military invincibility are 
alike to be succeeded by spiritual beauty and 
strength. This is what counts in Christ's regime. 

What people at which era were blessed with our 
educational systems for poor as well as rich; hos- 
pitals for poor and rich; asylums for children, old 
people, incurably ill, inebriate and insane; public 
libraries, franchise for the poor man, charters of 
liberty and justice, equal to ours? Even the 
criminal in prison is not tortured, and has his 
chaplain. Surely the people are trying to follow 
the teachings of the Master as to the sick and 
afflicted and those in prison, at least in some 
degree. True Plato and others sketched out fine 
republics and states to be, but not one eliminated 
so much error and oppression as we are already 
freed from, independent of that splendid effort 
which is now so obviously underlying all sane 
policies. However, we still must deplore the fact 
that all our policies are not quite sane. 

So far in our history, success is not always 
assured to good endeavour, but that effort is 
made in sincerity is good. That is Christlike. 



Where is Christ? 127 

Valiant, determined, wise effort will bring success 
ultimately. That is Christ. Do not stand aghast 
to read that personal effort for the good of human- 
ity, crowned by success, is Christ. Read up the 
prophecies and His own words from an esoteric 
standpoint, and you will see how His Kingdom 
was to come. He was to come as a thief in the 
night, or silently, in ways you little think of. If 
the master of the house had watched he would 
have known. So we may see if we watch. ' ' Again 
I say unto you watch, for ye know neither the 
day nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh." 
Then, again, we ask, "Where is Christ not?" 
Some one may readily cry out, "He is not in the 
gigantic, tyrannical monopolies." Are you posi- 
tively sure that there is no necessary lesson in these 
terrible monsters? We shall readily find at least 
one. Thus, if one man can control so absolutely 
the whole system or output of any one line of 
commerce, or if any one man can control the 
money market, or if one state may influence or 
dictate to the powers of the civilised world, does 
it not do well for an object lesson to assure us that 
Christ can reign over all peoples, even without 
the supernatural element being introduced ? Take 
our constitutional belief in the Christ's authority, 
take into consideration the new fields opened up by 
wireless telegraphy, telepathy, thought-suggestion, 
and kindred scientific discoveries, and shall a 
man be so foolish to-day as to say, "It cannot 



128 He Restoreth My Soul 

be, it will never be" ? Wise men never say a thing 
cannot be. 

There are two awesome words which we have all 
been familiar with and have heard used with 
various inflections and qualifyings, viz., God 
and the Devil. In all partyism there must be at 
least two factions. In all progressive movements 
there must be a leader of the movement and, with 
few exceptions, also a leader of the opposition. 
There seems to be always a spirit of progress and 
a spirit of hindrance in every phase of work in 
life, growth, success, politics, reforms, happiness, 
health, or any phase or condition which we may 
call to mind. We all know how very ancient is 
the idea of duality of influence, but that does not 
debar it from being a truth. The spirit of hin- 
drance to progression and uninterrupted evolution 
of all objects and conditions of the universe, is 
that which we know as Evil. The Creator and 
Preserver of the objects and conditions and con- 
tinuity of the cosmic universe we know as God. 
We are told by Matthew Arnold that by careful 
tracing of the word God back to where modern 
scholars may first find it, it is found to be 
synonymous with radiancy or brilliancy. We are 
pleased to learn this, as the usual interpretation, 
merely "goodness," seemed to be too limited and 
mediocre. But radiancy and brilliancy, that is 
excellent praise. 

We have outlived the childish and heathen 



Where is Christ? 129 

theory of God as being like a non -human man, only- 
altogether good, as ruling the cosmic universe, 
seated on some exalted, central stellar throne. 
That idea has passed away with the myth of Zeus 
and Athene. We now believe that the personality 
of our great God is throughout the All. He 
measures the trickling life-blood in our physical 
systems as it comes and goes to and from its 
provided reservoir. He sends the little gladsome 
thrills over our nervous systems when we meet a 
friend whom we love. He moves the new-born 
beast of the jungle to seek from its dam its first 
nourishing food. He soars with the eagle to his 
craggy eyrie. He vibrates in the joyous throat 
of the mounting skylark. He mutters in the 
distant rumbling thunders and scorches in the 
terrific lightning bolt hurled from the heavens. 
He sorts the stars and directs their wandering 
tortuous paths. He flings a dainty canopy of az- 
ure behind these twinkling orbs of light. He 
jewels the farther heavens with myriads more 
constellations, and yet more farther on. He 
moves worlds on worlds in rhythmic precision and 
He moves our faintest impulse towards the higher 
life. He plants the many solar lights as centres 
of planetary orbits. He plants a ray of holy 
light within my obscured and habit- darkened soul 
as a centre round which I may find a system of life 
that shall move in rhythm with His harmonious 
cosmos. And so shall I find life for my soul. 



130 He Restoreth My Soul 

The Evil, what or who is he? As the antithesis 
of God we use that name. If God is the Radiancy, 
then Evil is close darkness; if God is Brilliancy, 
then Evil is close gloom; if God is Order, then 
Evil is chaos; if God is Creator, then Evil is 
destroyer; if God moves for health and happiness, 
then Evil moves towards disease and misery; if 
God is All in All that makes for continuity of 
existence, then Evil must be the chaos, the void, 
the formless, the debris of dissolution, the nothing- 
ness. And if I have no ray of light in my soul, 
so shall I pass into destruction and death. 

If God is conceived to have trinity of existence, 
so also must Evil work in trifold phase. 

We have been searching for the appearance of the 
second person of this conception of the Triune God, 
viz., Jesus Christ, and when we shall see Him we 
shall also discover the leader of the opposition, 
or, as we were taught to call him, Satan. We 
learn that after Satan had racked Jesus into the 
weakness and exhaustion in the wilderness of 
temptation, then the angels ministered unto Him. 
Always the builder, but also always the destroyer. 
And shall we not be justified in conceiving it 
to be a part of God's plan that the real Church 
should be subjected to this same struggle between 
the two great principles, the leadership of Christ 
and the opposition of Satan? First Satan must 
have greatest influence, then Christ must have 
complete victory. 



Where* is Christ? 131 

In no place in the Scriptures that I can dis- 
cover does the Word state that Jesus our Christ 
was to be Lord of other than perhaps our planetary 
system, of which our sun is the centre. With all 
adoration, love, thankfulness, and reverence, we, 
as humanity, have a God-given right to try to 
understand the true position of our Lord, else 
how shall we fill our relative position as we ought ? 
Did we understand His mission better, we would 
then have a more rational desire and purpose in 
working in Him for the establishment of His 
kingdom. Not from a blind party spirit or 
so much from fear of judgment to come, but in 
a glad union with our Elder Brother, our great 
Head, proudly acknowledging Him to be no 
failure, but rather success for our success, life for 
our living, goodness for our growing goodness- 
wards. 

We gather from our inherent instinct, from 
our own Scriptures, as well as from the other 
great cults, traditions, and religious philosophies 
and lore that under certain circumstances a human 
soul may become immortal or beyond the possi- 
bility of destruction and dissolution. Each cult 
or school presents some one plan or scheme by 
which we may obtain or arrive at this most desir- 
able status. While as truth-seekers we are ready 
to find one or many truths contained in these 
various beliefs, still there is, we shall find, wide 
discrepancy and incompleteness in each and all. 



132 He RestoretH My Soul 

The Law of Life urges, if not forces, us to search 
for and strive after the True Way, In tracing 
this divine desire through its many phases, we 
seem to have performed a circle again and arrived 
at the point from whence we started, viz., that the 
natural office of self-preservation is the beginning 
of the way to eternal life. We have seen it to be 
reasonable for this world's highest need that 
each person should help in the Christ- work of 
redemption of the life that now is. That each 
should work according to his opportunity and 
ability for the highest good of the common race. 
The majority of sane persons see this very plainly, 
but we find to our dismay that we are unable to 
attain to this most desirable condition. The 
whole race stands to-day chagrined and self- 
convicted, crying like that strong, earnest apostle 
of old, "For we know that the law is spiritual; but 
I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I work 
I know not; for not what I would, that do I 
practise: but what I hate, that I do. . . . For 
the good which I would I do not, but the evil 
which I would not, that I practise. . . . Oh, 
wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver 
me out of this body of death?" But at the finish 
he tells us triumphantly that after much trial and 
persecution and temptation, he has conquered his 
deathly body through the power of Christ. 
Listen! "I have fought the good fight, I have 
finished the course, I have kept the faith; hence- 



Where is Christ? 133 

forth there is laid up for me a crown of right- 
eousness which the Lord the righteous Judge 
shall give me at that day: and not only to me, 
but also to all them that have loved His ap- 
pearing. . . . The Lord will deliver me from 
every evil work, and will save me unto his heav- 
enly kingdom, to whom be the glory unto the 
ages of ages, amen. ' ' His bufferings by Satan were 
over. Christ had helped him to victory. It is 
Satan as destructive influence that almost — but 
not quite — buffets us to death. In the end he 
will be vanquished. We shall find and follow the 
True Way. Following afar off, that too is follow- 
ing. The father saw the prodigal afar off, and 
ran and kissed him. There is holy joy amongst 
the angels in heaven when we weakly breathe the 
contrite prayer to God. "A bruised reed will 
he not break, and a dimly burning wick will he 
not quench: he will bring forth justice in truth. 
He will not fail nor be discouraged till he have 
set Justice on the earth: and the isles shall wait 
for his law." The wounded spirit is lovingly 
healed. 

The gates of the new city will never be closed. 
God has said it. The evil shall be overcome, the 
good shall prevail. It is the order of the cosmos. 
It is the written promise of God, " For as in Adam 
all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." 
And Christ said, "Ye must be born anew from 
above." He told even His chosen disciples who 



134 He Restoreth My Soul 

were wrangling amongst themselves, that they 
could not even enter the Kingdom, much less 
have chief place, unless they turned and became 
as little children. It would seem then that we 
are standing between the life-giving presence of 
Christ and the destructive presence of Satan; 
that we are attracted God-ward and life-ward by 
Christ, the Logos of God, and evil- ward and 
death-ward by Satan, the false one. We cannot 
face both ways. It is Satan's business to tempt 
us, but Christ has promised to help us if we ask 
Him, and His promises are sure, or our religion 
is indeed a vain thing, and had better be discarded 
for a better one — if we can find one. To put it 
into more concrete form, we should measure 
every act of our lives by this law. We should 
mentally ask ourselves, Does this act tend to 
eternal life, is it righteous, and will Christ be my 
strength in the performance of it? or Does this 
act tend to my own or some other soul's destruc- 
tion, and is Satan urging me to perform it? Is 
this act calculated to tend towards scientific 
improvement of my race, or am I so cowardly 
as to be trying to destroy myself and other 
souls? 

Yet again we repeat, "Where is Christ not?" 
We find no answer which would satisfy a logical 
mind; it were much wiser to find the Christ of 
God in all men and movements, in all volition of 
the race which tends Godward. 



Where is Christ? 135 

1 God, who holdest in Thy hand 

The islands of the sea; 
Whose bounty makes our native land 

So glorious, great and free. 

Now bend our hearts to Thy command; 

And grant us wisdom true 
To know the times, and understand 

What England ought to do. 

The heat of party strife abate, 

And teach us how to choose 
Good men and wise to guard the State — 

The evil to refuse." 

T. G. Crippen. 



CHAPTER VI 

TO LIVE IN CHRIST — HIS BRIDE 

"This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their 
heart is far from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, 
teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men. Ye leave 
the commandments of God and hold fast the traditions of 
men." 

Mark vii., 6, 7, 8. 

"My beloved spake, and said unto me, 
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away, 
For lo, the winter is past, 
The rain is over and gone, 
The flowers appear on the earth; 
The time of the singing of birds is come." 

Canticles ii., 10, 11, 12. 

IF it were well for us to live in Christ, then it 
were well to inquire, How shall we live in 
Him? St. Paul gives us the order of the process 
thus : " For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all 
be made alive." But each in his own order: 
Christ the first fruits ; then they that are Christ's at 
His coming. ' ' Then cometh the end, when he shall 
deliver up the kingdom to God even the Father : 
when he shall have abolished all rule and au- 
thority and power. For he must reign, till he hath 
put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy 
that shall be abolished is death." 

136 



To Live in Christ — His Bride 137 

We would judge by the fulfilment of the many 
prophecies that the reign of Adam is drawing 
to a close, that the reign of Christ is drawing very 
near. It were wiser of us to come in with the tide ; 
we may not stop this vast, overwhelming flow of 
Christ's reign any more than an infant may 
breathe against the great ocean tide and hurl 
it to the farther shore. It were saner, more 
scientific, to sail happily in on the flow, than to be 
a bit of flotsam wrecked by trying to stem it. If 
we are, in the above quotation, given the order 
of the process, what shall we find to be the clearly 
defined mode of the process ? However it operated 
that in Adam we become subject to death, by 
that same order reversed do we become subject to 
immortality. Surely we shall find trace of a law 
in this process which has extended its operating 
issues over a period of perhaps six thousand 
years. 

The order of the fall of man, to sum it up 
briefly, seems to be thus. First, innocence, with 
capability of communing with God and Satan. 
Second, Satan talked so plausibly to the weaker, 
more easily persuaded creature, the woman, that 
she believed him and disregarded God's commands 
and instructions, and, in turn, persuaded Adam, 
though the stronger, to do likewise. Though 
the stronger, he, like Achilles, had his vulnerable 
spot. History, and even modern society, cor- 
roborates this hint at that which seems to be an 



138 He Restoreth My Soul 

astonishing weakness in the stronger sex of our 
race, viz., his abject slavery to a tempting woman. 
Third in the process comes that they two agreed 
between themselves to disregard God's instruc- 
tions and give heed to Satan's. This was — and 
now is — the Fall of Man. 

Now to retrace, to be strictly accurate to the 
process; the woman must listen to God only and 
turn her back always on the Tempter. Then, 
she must know that a good woman has the same 
quality of persuasion over a man as has a degraded, 
wicked woman. She will first set herself right 
with God; then she will persuade the man whom 
the Father has placed nearest to her in her relations 
to society, be he her husband, son, father, lover, 
or friend. A hue and cry from a female movement 
for a more dominating influence over mankind 
is unscriptural, unscientific, unwomanly and is 
seldom rewarded by lasting good. 

The first fruits of this degraded man and woman 
was a jealous-minded murderer, Cain. God had 
said that they should surely die if they ate of the 
forbidden fruit. But we have record of their con- 
tinued life for many years, and of their having 
borne several children. It would seem that the 
Fall brought spiritual mortality as well as physical 
weaknesses, which later on resulted in their 
physical death. Therefore, to be alive in Christ 
would be to become spiritually alive and in time 
our physical bodies would be so free of weaknesses 



To Live in Christ — His Bride 139 

that we could not die of disease or senile decay. 
The result of listening obedience to the Logos 
of God would be that woman would be freed from 
her severe travail of pain, and man would be 
freed from the terrible strain of unprofitable 
and hopeless labour. The union of this race-man 
and race-woman should not logically be a Cain, a 
murderous hater of his brother, but a Christlike 
child who will love and serve his brother. Such 
was Jesus, our Saviour. He was the first fruits ; we 
hope for the full harvest of Christlike little 
children who shall be the holy men and women of 
the future. These will be free-born citizens of the 
Holy City. Not a family of Christ s, but a family 
like unto Christ. He is the Anointed One, we 
may be one with and in Him, but not equal to or 
possessing the authority of Jesus our Christ. We 
may only become a race in Christ by becoming 
individually alive in Him. Jesus was specially 
conceived and born and was specially endowed 
and given unusual experience to fit Him, as a man, 
for His mission, as Christ. St. Paul tells us of how 
severe were His trials of faith and how great were 
His sufferings. Thus, "Who in the days of His 
flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications 
with strong crying and tears unto Him that was 
able to save Him from death, and having been 
heard for His godly fear though He was a Son, 
yet learned obedience by the things which He 
suffered ; and having been made perfect, He became 



140 He Restoreth My Soul 

unto all them that obey Him the author [or cause] 
of eternal salvation." 

Then, we find, that He alone is the author of 
salvation or eternal life for us. We obtain this 
life by obedience to Him who is the Word of God. 
We each have our own little mission which we 
can only accomplish by the help of our High 
Priest, our Elder Brother. Sometimes it is by 
much strong crying and many trials, but if we 
strive faithfully after this perfect obedience we 
shall be fully assisted in our duty and we shall ac- 
complish our mission, be it small or great. We each 
have some part to perform in the bringing about 
of the reign of Christ, the Holy City, the Kingdom 
of Heaven. Childlike trust and unquestioning 
obedience to the full moral law is the groundwork 
of all real purpose of a soul. All else is spurious, 
fanatical, unholy. I think that Jesus gave the 
emphasis to His oneness with the Father, rather 
than the Father's oneness with Him. And so 
with His followers; it was rather their oneness 
with Him than His with them. This is wholly 
reasonable, as the oneness arose from the obedience 
of the lower to the higher, from Christ Jesus to 
the Father, from the disciples, to Christ Jesus. 
And so our restoration to the first type, "Our 
Image," comes about by this oneness with our 
Elder Brother Christ Jesus. 

Then to put it so simply that the children shall 
make no mistake, we shall find the Christ in all 



To Live in Christ — His Bride 141 

that is working for true and brotherly kindness. 
His Christhood was wholly dependent on the 
careful listening to the Father, perfect obedience 
to the Father, confession of His entire dependence 
on the Father, followed by the works of uplifting 
the moral law of the Father. The greatness of 
His mission was only His greatness in service for 
the weaker children of the race, His entire self- 
surrender to His call. Then followed the laying 
down of His physical life in order to precede us to 
the heavenly kingdom that He might eventually 
bring us to the same happy condition. When 
He shall have brought all to this happy state, 
then, we are told, He will lay down all this au- 
thority that the Father may be All in All. So we 
must perform every duty as toward the Kingdom, 
following after His manner of service and self- 
renunciation even to physical inconvenience or 
death ; and when our little service be accomplished, 
we shall withdraw and give our Redeemer all credit 
and give Him who has suffered shame and sorrow, 
for nearly two thousand long years, all glory 
and honour. So shall we rise from out our dead 
selves and become alive in Him, as He is alive in 
the Father of all. 

Straight is the Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 
and it is never entered by creeds or doctrinal 
wrangling. Nor shall we ever enter with the mark 
of any other god on our forehead. If the Master 
gave His disciples such severe warning of the peril 



142 He Restoreth My Soul 

which threatened them through this arrogant 
wrangling for supremacy, how much more aptly is 
it suited to those who confess to His discipleship 
to-day. 

If the Master loved the rich young ruler who 
came to Him to inquire about the way of life, 
the young man must have been of a most estimable 
character ; yet we find that he went away sorrowful, 
for the Master, like a true physician, had probed 
his one weakness, had found one idol set up in his 
heart. It was not the riches, we think, but the 
supreme love of them and selfish desire to keep 
them which debarred the otherwise so lovable 
young man from the Kingdom. He might not 
enter the way of life branded on the forehead by 
the god of this world, the brand of Cain. Surely 
the lesson is most seasonable to-day, this period 
of millionaires and beggars, of dukes and paupers, 
of the rich man and Lazarus. 

The key to these debarring judgments of our 
Lord is found in His answer to the learned and 
just ruler of the synagogue, Nicodemus. This 
lesson is also most seasonable for us at this preg- 
nant period of church and secular history. He 
seems to me to represent our very best class of 
clergy and religious people, a really goodly class, 
yet a class which, with very rare exceptions, falls 
far short of Christ's standard. And we love 
to know that they too are asking the Master 
for more explicit directions to the way of life. 



To Live in Christ — His Bride 143 

We find that this learned Pharisee lived care- 
fully by the Jewish Law. It was the best and all 
that he had to live by. It is evident that he 
scarcely felt sure of future life by its operations, 
or perhaps he had not believed in a future or 
eternal life, did not expect it. But he was a wise 
man. If this new Prophet had more light than 
he possessed, he would have it if he could. To me 
there is meaning even in his going in the evening, 
in the dark. But if he were groping in the dark- 
ness after light and truth in sincerity, we know 
that he received what he desired. So the Master 
told him that he might begin to live eternally now, 
if he would but breathe the inspiration from the 
spirit of Truth and Light and Life, instead of 
trusting to the performing of the rigid written law 
alone. The ritual must be considered in its primal 
sense, or it was injurious and of worse than no 
effect. "You must be born anew, or from 
above," the Prophet told him. Ritual is an old 
empty shell unless you breathe the primal sense 
into its performance. This man was nearer to 
Christ's mind than the rich young man, for he 
responded to the divine call. We do not learn that 
Christ asked him to leave the Jewish Church and 
follow Him, but we may draw that he was advised 
to remain at his post where his prominence gave 
him excellent opportunity. 

May there not be a helpful lesson in this for all 
awakened souls who minister to the spiritual 



144 He Restoreth My Soul 

wants of the people to-day? We know that the 
Church visible shall fall, for God has said it, but 
were it not better to remain within her organisa- 
tion and help to purify her and defend the True 
Faith. We do not learn that Jesus Christ ever 
quitted His attendance at the Temple service, but 
we do know that He tried to clear it of its odious 
degradation. And so we find our wise friend, 
Nicodemus, afterwards defending the Master 
and cynically cutting the absurd ritualists. Oh, 
for an army of such calm, studious, sincerely 
truth-seeking men to-day! This is no day for 
fanatical teachers. 

We have heard much in the past of the gentle- 
ness of the Master. Perhaps it would be well 
to consider at times the opposite side of His 
character. Also to consider carefully to whom it 
was that He was ever gentle and forgiving, and to 
whom He was most cuttingly severe, always keep- 
ing in mind that His judgments were and are 
right. Jesus taught the doctrine that one must 
live for the future, that the present must become 
secondary to any future always, that the physical 
must be secondary to the spiritual, that all which 
interrupts a clear vision of God must be laid 
aside as being idolatrous, therefore hurtful. To 
see everything as from the eternal life aspect, to 
be born anew from above, that was His secret. 
That is the only way out of Adam into Christ, out 
of a mortal state into the immortal state. If, 



To Live in Christ — His Bride 145 

therefore, listening and obedience to the son of 
God, as Word of God, brings us Eternal Life, then 
a child would logically reason that listening and 
obedience to the Tempter will bring death to 
the soul. " Behold, all souls are mine," said the 
Lord Jehovah. "As the soul of the father, so 
also the soul of the son is mine; the soul 
that sinneth shall die. . . . But if the wicked 
turn from all his sins that he hath com- 
mitted and keep all my statutes, and do that 
which is lawful and right, he shall surely live; 
he shall not die. 11 

Men have noted this theory of successive phases, 
or successive births, in other than religious or 
spiritual life. In the mental or intellectual life, 
they speak of the subconscious self, the conscious 
self, and the illumined self, as succession of intel- 
lectual birth or development, the first two being 
the limit of all but the rare few. The subcon- 
scious state is natural to our infant days, perhaps 
before our natural birth, and while yet so young 
that our sense of being possessed of volition is not 
aroused. We are, so to speak, as yet impersonal. 
We have unconscious, almost automatic, activity, 
but we are not aware of ourselves. The infant 
soon learns that he can move his fingers and 
toes at will, and it greatly interests him. Then, 
too, he is learning to be conscious that his mouth 
seeks something that will make him more content, 
and he quickly learns to find that great first happi- 



146 He Restore th My Soul 

ness on his mother's bosom. If he is not waited 
upon promptly, his injured feelings make him 
automatically cry out. He soon learns that he 
obtains his desires by crying out. He soon 
learns' that this is a very effective goad to bring 
to him his desires. He has now become con- 
scious of himself as a separate human being, 
and the tiny tyrant joins in the universal battle 
of wills. 

It is a weary and adventurous path to the 
third state, and few there be who attain to it. 
Not that it is so difficult under given circumstances 
or conditions, but that the condition does not 
often exist. Many a well-developed, conscious 
mind feels the struggle within that portends a new 
field of greater intellectual activity and wider 
opportunity, but what with the necessity of 
worldly care for sustenance, or consciousness of 
weakness and inefficiency, or fear of censure or de- 
rision, which is more cruel, he stifles the growing, 
bursting new life, fearing that it may come 
forth a too troublesome thing. If each person 
had full opportunity for putting into practice his 
highest heart desire, what a brilliant race we should 
become! I mean, right here, to speak of all 
talents which may be brought to bear on, and are 
incident to, this life only: the trades, commerce, 
agriculture, the professions, literature, art, and 
science, labour of any description. All labour is 
equal. There is no aristocracy in labour other than 



To Live in Christ — His Bride 147 

that of beauty and precision of execution, and 
it is all holy and beautiful if it tend toward the 
sanity and comfort of the universal man. We 
know well that a city is only beautiful and clean 
as each minute detail is attended to with an eye for 
the beautiful and in strict keeping with the sanitary 
law. And a race is wise, healthy, brilliant or 
foolish, sick, stupid, just as is the individual so. 
This we know to be true in the objective world, 
the visible world that now is, and we shall find 
the same law obtaining in the spiritual world. 
Christ did not try to overturn governments or 
remove systems. He went about doing good, 
forgiving repentant sinners, reproving hypocrisy 
strongly, teaching the fatherhood of God, the 
brotherhood of man. He taught that the coming 
kingdom was to be in the individual heart, and 
that this in time would right all wrongs, and 
would usher in the religion of Christ on earth, 
the Holy City let down from Heaven. If there 
is such a one as a true atheist, he must be 
compared to the subconscious infant, and as 
being inflicted with imbecility of soul, or he has 
no soul. 

The conscious state spiritually is that state 
which nearly all live and die in; that of some 
conscious knowledge of God and of a sense of 
right and wrong. This is the almost universal 
class, and the knowledge of right and wrong 
would seem to be wholly limited and coloured by 



148 He Restoreth My Soul 

the status of civilisation and literary colouring of 
the leaders of each cult. 

The illumined, spiritually, are the rare few who 
have shed light and hope, and have been as a little 
leaven leavening the whole lump. Many of them 
have made history, many are altogether unsung, 
excepting by the angels who always rejoice over a 
child born to God. At the great exhibitions 
and public demonstrations one may frequently 
see illuminated buildings dazzling with electric 
lights, radiant, sparkling. Is this appearance 
effected by one large ball of electricity? No, but 
by numberless small ones, each a miniature sun, 
perfect, radiant in itself. At a distance one 
loses sight of the less brilliant brick, stone, or 
wood, and sees only a building made of twinkling 
stars. Stars everywhere, rows of stars, arches 
of stars, outlines of all descriptions wrought in 
stars. And the uninitiated wonder at so many 
stars and at their dazzling brightness. The 
initiated know that there is a great heart some- 
where throbbing out radiancy along numerous 
little wires to the small orbs that meet our admiring 
gaze. If in a row of lights one observes a blank, 
we know that it is either unconnected, or that its 
small self has become incapable of receiving and 
reflecting the radiancy. There is only one way 
to make it shine ; that is to have the expert hand 
adjust and connect it with the main current; 
then and only then will it shine. To shine is its 



To Live in Christ — His Bride 149 

only reason for being. It is not made to be a 
blank, much less are we. The good Book says, 
"And they that are wise shall shine as the bright- 
ness of the firmament; and they that turn many 
to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." 
How many radiant faces do we meet in a day's 
wandering about a city? Learn to look on a face 
to read its soul, and you shall soon learn one 
of the saddest lessons of life. You shall soon 
know what is meant by " The Man of Sorrows and 
acquainted with grief." It was not His sorrow, 
great as it was, but the sorrow in the faces of 
the unborn children of the race, passing in pro- 
phetic panorama before His sharpened vision that 
gave such anguish to His gentle, kindly heart. 
Many wonder and turn coldly from God because 
He permits so much disease, disappointment, 
and sorrow, but if we each could have our earthly 
hopes and desires come to fruition, would our 
inner souls be so ready to cry out for the realisation 
of the higher life, for that something within us 
that shall never die, but shall be crowned with 
a most satisfying and worthy fruition? Is it 
better to have a small smoky taper to light a 
selfishly narrow path through earth-life, and an 
equally shadowy flickering portion of the testing, 
cleansing fires of Gehenna to lead you out into the 
paths of dissolution and chaos, or is it better to, 
like Enoch, walk with God in the clear steady 
light of the Sun of Righteousness while still on 



150 He Restoreth My Soul 

earth, and afterwards to grow Godward, from 
perfection unto perfection? The wise man said, 
"But the path of the righteous is as the dawning 
light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect 
day." Is it better to stumble along throughout a 
shortened, disgraced soul-life, with a shadowy, 
flickering light, or to walk with unfaltering steps 
to the heights of heaven lighted by the purifying, 
life-giving Radiancy of the Everlasting Father? 
It is like closing and darkening all our windows 
on a glorious summer day and going about our work 
with a nasty little tallow candle. It is the one 
great unforgivable crime of the soul. We may 
light some small, foolish taper of intellectual or 
ritualistic religion, but it does not illuminate the 
soul, but rather casts a shadow upon it. We must 
destroy all that hinders that radiance from enter- 
ing. This is St. Paul's theory of dying in order to 
live. " I die daily," he said, buffeting himself and 
being buffeted, in order to attain the prize of his 
high calling. This is the true wisdom that shall 
overcome the selfish, self-centred tendency of our 
nature which we each have, be we ever so anxious 
to be good. We as a people are, or should be, 
the starred temple of God. We, as individuals, 
are, each one taken by himself, responsible for the 
brilliancy of the temple. All down the ages 
many of us have been trying to shine alone, many 
of us have never been connected with the great 
heart by the live wires, and many of us, alas! 



To Live in Christ — His Bride 151 

are quite out of order within ourselves. And 
so we each and all need the expert hand to mend 
matters. When the ball of light is in the raw 
material it is, so to speak, in a subconscious state. 
When it is formed and in good working order, it 
is, so to speak, conscious, but it only becomes illum- 
ined when it is finally united with the great throb- 
bing heart that feeds this wonderful radiancy 
out along the wires. And so many of us go about 
just as the raw material, spiritually, as the sub- 
conscious infant. In time many of us become 
conscious, spiritually, and join the war of creeds 
(or wills), as the infant does. We are like the 
balls that are formed and ready to be connected 
with the "live wire." But, alas! how few of us 
are truly united with our great heart, Christ Jesus. 
Alas, how many of us are just blank spots in the 
temple of God. The poor electric orb is helpless 
in itself, but the great kind Father has given 
us the great gift of volition, and if we use this 
Godlike faculty, by turning towards the great 
heart, we shall soon find ourselves in unity and 
ready to receive and radiate the shining light. 

It were doubly foolish for one to think to begin to 
live in Christ just after passing through the gates 
of death or to have a miraculous perfection thrust 
upon him as he leaves his physical body. We 
have no Scripture to guarantee such a theory. 
Nor have we Scripture to deny that we may 
not turn good-ward after physical death takes 



152 He Restoreth My Soul 

place. 1 Nor are we justified in believing in a 
literal always- continuing fire for wicked souls to be 
punished therein. One may find frequently that 
the soul is tried as by fire, and that all that is 
wicked must be cast out and burnt in Gehenna, 
but most assuredly the soul is not to be put in there 
to burn or to be tortured. 

I am so glad that I need not be ashamed of the 
Gospel of Christ. I am so glad that our feeblest 
aspiration toward the perfected life is not slighted, 
but rather is gently fanned into more active desire. 
The new life! The new birth! Jesus' doctrine 
was simplicity itself. He gave but one new 
commandment, viz., "That ye love one another." 
It sounds so simple to the ear, but it is so 
diametrically opposed to the old law which taught 
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," that 
the typical Jew found it most difficult to follow. 
"Surely it were well enough to be just without 
being generous," he thought. 

We find it to be still more difficult to-day when 
in commercial and social life even common 
justice is scarcely aimed at. True, there is much 
loudly cried doling of alms, but where shall we 
find even the strictly just Jewish law obeyed 
between man and man — that true justice which 

1 See Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. ii., Ap- 
pendix xix., by Rev. A. Edersheim, M.A., Oxon., Ph.D., 
D.D., sometime Grenfield Lecturer on the Septuagint in 
University of Oxford. 



To Live in Christ — His Bride 153 

must precede true generosity? The Jewish law of 
justice preceded the Christian law of "In honour 
preferring one another," "Bear ye one another's 
burdens and thus fulfil the law. ' ' Jesus recognised 
that the law of justice must precede the law of 
love (or "be just before you are generous") when 
He said, " I came not to destroy the law, but 
to fulfil." A spasmodic or arrogant giving of 
alms is not the true sequel of the former law. 
The Church, to be truly following the type, should 
first enforce justice and integrity, and afterward 
the fulfilling of that more beautiful law, "That 
ye love one another." Does the history of the 
Church Catholic since Constantine justify her on 
this point, which is so vital? 

Jesus' call to His disciples was also very simple, 
"Follow me." It sounds so easy, but His disciples 
found it to be difficult enough to respond to. I am 
glad to know that following afar off, while it 
may be cowardly or weak, still is following. His 
kindly call to us, " Come unto Me all ye who labour 
and that are heavy laden and I will give you rest," 
"Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for 
I am meek and lowly of heart; and ye shall find 
rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and 
My burden is light," — all this is most endearing 
and assuring. If we take His yoke upon us, we 
shall walk where He walks, not in His steps, as is 
often suggested, but by His side, learning of Him, 
working with Him. We shall be so close that we 



154 He Restoreth My Soul 

may converse by the way and ask Him of all things 
that we should know. That is better than follow- 
ing afar off. 

We are to live in Christ, not to each be a Christ, 
but so living as to be constantly in union with 
and drawing inspiration from our living Head. 
If we are yoked with the prince of this world, 
we are yoked with the destroying power and are 
breathing in the miasma of chaotic dissolution. 
Eternal life and happiness is the consequence of 
receiving qualities which tend to and thereby 
assure life, and we must live in unity with the 
heart and by the side of the anointed Saviour 
of Men to obtain it. Jesus is the Word of the All 
to us, there is none other voice on whom we may 
depend. This is God's design for the preservation 
of the soul of man. He said, " This is My beloved 
Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him." 
And thus we find that the Father spoke to man 
and gave him distinct command to listen to His 
one perfected Son. It was this renewed listening 
to His word that was to redeem the people from 
their sins, which obedience would bring back the 
first estate of man — his innocence, and give him 
immortality. 

Therefore since Christ is the Voice of Life, and 
Satan, being opposite, is the Voice of Death, it 
follows that if we prefer to walk yoked with 
Satan, or the evil influence, we shall surely die, for 
we shall be constantly sinning, and we know that 



To Live in Christ — His Bride 155 

"the soul that sinneth shall die." This is an 
esoteric principle and in nothing but outward 
issue is it connected with formal religion. The 
Kingdom of Heaven is within ; then it follows that 
the Kingdom of Hell, or Gehenna, is also within 
the soul. And who shall doubt it after having 
suffered from a guilty conscience as each of us must 
have done? The laws of progress and the laws of 
disintegration are constantly working toward their 
respective issues in all things of nature which we 
may readily observe. It is exemplified every- 
where in all kinds of life. Had the Scriptures been 
silent, we should still know that health brings life, 
and disease brings death, that to live spiritually 
means that we must have a healthy spirit. That 
conduct that brings greatest good is the best, 
most life-giving conduct. Mrs. Browning well 
says — 

"Subsists no law outside of life: 
No perfect manners without Christian souls; 
The Christ Himself had been no Lawgiver, 
Unless He had given the life too with the Law." 

Creed alone never saved a soul from death. 
If we mean really to live eternally, then according 
to our Lawgiver we must live the Law, or, as a 
true Englishman would say of sport, we must 
play the game. We must indeed take His yoke 
upon us and learn of Him. Horatius Bonar so 
beautifully puts the thought into lines for us — 



156 He Restoreth My Soul 

"Be what thou seemest; live thy creed, 
Hold up to earth the torch divine; 
Be what thou prayest to be made, 
Let the great Master's step be thine." 

This beautiful childlike simplicity of character, 
this loving obedience to our Lord, this close 
unity of heart, mind, and soul with His, this, and 
this only, is that which will signify to our friends, 
ourselves, and Him that we are indeed His true 
wife, His beloved Bride. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE EFFECT ON OUR LIVES OF LIVING IN CHRIST 

"Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may 
have the right to come to the tree of life and may enter 
in by the gates into the city." 

Revelation xxii. 14. 

"I also will laugh in the day of your calamity; I will 
mock when your fear cometh; . . . For that they hated 
knowledge and did not choose the fear of Jehovah." 

Proverbs i. 26, 29. 

MANY years ago, two little groups of storm- 
tossed men and women stood newly landed 
on the wild shore of a great ocean, the almost 
impossible approach to a vast uncivilised con- 
tinent. The first group came by the good grace 
and command of their sovereign to colonise and 
hold for their heirs such lands as were assigned to 
them respectively, so history tells. Their object 
was mainly commerce and social importance. 
Slavery followed this immigration and continued 
until long after the land had become independent 
of her aged and too-exacting mother country. 
Some few degrees to the north, and some few 
decades later, a second band of storm-tossed men 
and women landed on the same grand old border 

157 



158 He Restoreth My Soul 

of sand and rock 'twixt wave and green. Not by 
the grace of the king came they, but that they 
might have freedom to worship God as they 
thought right. They were exiles seeking a new 
home in a strange land. And their song of praise 
rose high and loud from the grand old rock in a 
glad " Gloria in Excelsis" which flung its rever- 
berating echoes out over the new-found land of 
freedom. The nearer mountain-tops caught up 
the strain and re-flung it out over the snow-caps 
which lie far beyond her plains, where it died 
softly away on the bed of the old Pacific, as a 
lullaby for the weary world. Commercial im- 
portance, with all its errors and vices; religion, 
with all its attendant bigotry and fanaticism, 
still hold the continent spellbound from shore 
to shore. Commerce has grown into a monster 
octopus which stretches its creeping, clutching 
tentacles clear round the globe, and we grieve 
to know that it still trades in the accursed traffic 
of men, although in a modernised, modified form, 
but of a much more virulent type. A great 
heritage has Commerce in America; will she bless 
or will she curse mankind with her unprecedented 
influential power? Religion has also grown into 
a great system, at times, maybe, bigoted and 
fanatical, but we love to know that she has never 
to any marked extent sold her birthright of 
religious freedom of thought that she found on 
that rock of the bleak New England shore. Only 



The Effect of Living in Christ 159 

second in freedom of thought is she to her grand 
old matronly mother England with her faithful 
family. That is as it should be. 

To-day there is a desperate and final struggle 
taking place between these two typical bodies, the 
freedom-loving and the slavery-loving. Both are 
strong and stalwart. The soul of the great re- 
public is awakening for her rebirth. Will she 
come out victorious for right as she did in her 
terrible fratricidal civil war? We hope that before 
long she shall have planted her feet firmly on 
the rock Christ Jesus, and her two types shall join 
in a wholly sanctified and consecrated "Gloria" 
which shall reach and unite and strengthen and 
inspire for good all that she now crushes in her 
injurious commercial tentacles. 

But is it only she that is awakening for this 
life-giving transition? Is not the whole twin con- 
tinent beginning to rub its sleepy eyes? Is not 
the pall-like covering of dark, benighted Africa 
being torn into tattered shreds that the white 
light of freedom and knowledge may penetrate 
and awaken the stifled souls of her oppressed and 
degraded sons? Is not weird and spectral Asia 
creeping out from a misty past with palsied, weary 
feet to meet the magnetic thrill of the dawning 
morning? The isles of the sea, are they not crying 
out for the morning drink from the mother-spirit 
of the race? And thou, matronly Europa, with 
your many children; you have not yet accom- 



160 He Restoreth My Soul 

plished that marvel within you, thy second birth. 
Wilt thou as in myth be the bride of the Great- 
est and Best? Hast thou also borne sons who 
shall rule in wisdom and judge even the souls of 
sleeping men in this shoal-like darkened world? 

We find the initial office of all creatures alike 
brings them to their various possible standards of 
maturity, then by serial order they must pass into 
dissolution and disintegration. This is true of 
plant, fowl, fish, and creeping thing or flying 
creature, and also true of the merely physical 
body of man. God's creation is a serial harmony, 
a ceaseless chime of softly singing silvery bells, 
an ineffable cadence. At times we may catch 
a little of its melody when our trust is full, when 
we passively lose ourselves in the universal quiet, 
in the — may we say? — musical silence, when we, 
like the deaf, feel rather than hear the vibra- 
tions of this grand, holy hymn. For a while we 
become oblivious to the tangled snarl of life, 
we are loath to be awakened to the intricate dis- 
cords of this kindergarten world. Yet we must 
be brave, courageous, and studious in the struggle, 
and very painstaking while at our school. At 
all times we may breathe a prayer for this courage, 
strength, and studious patience. We must not 
slight or think lightly of the small duties, for the 
Father does not slight the worthless sparrow's 
fall, nor does He leave the tiny insect pathless. 

Oh, the possibilities of even our earthly existence 



The Effect of Living in Christ 161 

when we think of what unity some sainted souls 
have had with God, even other than His only 
perfected Son. It is said that Enoch walked 
with God, Moses talked with God, Elijah was a 
man of God; and Jesus said of John the Baptist, 
" There has been none greater." These are, 
perhaps, the most wholly surrendered lives of 
which we have account in sacred history outside 
of the Christ, and we feel justified in claiming that 
each had arrived at a state in which physical 
death had no more dominion over them. When 
Enoch had completed his work, it is said that 
God took him without death. He could not 
become corrupt in body and die while he had 
faith to walk with God. Moses was a typical 
prophet. To carry out the type he must not 
enter Canaan. He was in full vigour of health 
and the angels laid him low but he did not die of 
natural corruption of the body. He rests some- 
where on "grey Beth-peor's height." This great- 
est of lawgivers who could see the light of divinity 
and yet live could not die of weakness and disease, 
so God removed him in His own way. Elijah was 
a man to whom God gave a measure of control 
over even the elements, and the Destroyer came 
at his call and laid low legions of men; but he 
could not lay him low. So God took him away 
in what appeared to be a chariot of fire. His 
atomic physical body was scattered or changed, 
but it could not become corrupted. The history 



162 He Restoreth My Soul 

of Moses and Elijah makes one feel how puny and 
insignificant a thing is our faith to-day, indeed, 
if there be "the Faith" found amongst us. John 
the Baptist must needs be taken from the earthly 
scene in some way. His mission was accomplished ; 
he must give place to his hoped-for Messiah. 
This strong rugged man of the wilderness was 
not ill or dying of natural decay. He had fought 
the flesh in the wilderness and had conquered it, 
so God took him, as He has taken many a strong- 
sOuled liver of the same truth since. 

After having read of these and others of lesser 
endowments amongst the prophets, and of the 
disciples with their extraordinary powers, and 
even some single souls in the nucleus of Christ's 
Church since the first days, how like puppets we 
feel; at the best nothing better than puny little 
children. Of David God said, "I have found 
David, the son of Jesse, a man after My heart who 
shall do all My will." Yet David died as ordinary 
mortals die, and from sacred history we know 
also that he had lived as ordinary mortals live. 
David was obedient enough to be an instrument 
for God's service. His heart desired to be good. 
He was constantly repenting of his sins with 
agony of tears — only to err again. His tempta- 
tions were many and powerful, but he never found 
strength to conquer in the wilderness. It was 
more to his liking to live in indulgent luxury. At 
the end he said, " I go the way of all earth." His 



The Effect of Living in Christ 163 

heart had panted after the water brook, but he 
tenaciously clung to the pride of life. We learn 
that the Hebrew word for man, as used above, is 
meant to stand for one who is wretched, sorry, sick. 
The Hebrew seemed to understand the heart to 
be the source of many qualities and energies as 
well as life itself. Therefore David typified the 
faulty, fallen man, often sinning, often repenting, 
and within his soul always feeling in the dark after 
the heart of God for strength to grow Godward. 

From this truly typical man, by a long line of 
descendants perhaps not so good as he, came our 
Lord Jesus Christ. In wonder we ask, "Why 
came He not in a line of those who had conquered? 
Then we might better understand His perfect 
nature." 

Paul the Apostle, to whom the risen Jesus told 
many things and gave much instruction, as well 
as the gift of inspiration, says of Him, " Having 
then a great high priest who hath passed through 
the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold 
fast our confession. For we have not a high 
priest that cannot be touched with the feelings 
of our infirmities, but One that hath been in all 
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 
For every high priest being taken from among 
men is appointed for men in all things pertaining 
to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices 
for sins, who can bear gently with the ignorant 
and erring for that he himself is also compassed 



164 He Restoreth My Soul 

with infirmities, and by reason thereof is bound 
as for the people. And no man taketh the honour 
unto himself but when he is called of God even 
as was Aaron. So Christ gloried not Himself 
to be made a high priest, but He that spake unto 
Him." And again, "Who in the days of His 
flesh having offered up prayers and supplications 
with strong crying and tears unto Him that was 
able to save Him from death and having been 
heard for His godly fear though He was a son 
yet learned obedience by the things which he 
suffered ; and having been made perfect He became 
unto all them that obey Him the Author [or 
cause] of salvation; named of God a high priest 
after the order of Melchizedek ; of whom we have 
many things to say and hard of interpretation 
seeing ye are become dull of hearing." 

These great men, Moses, Enoch, Elijah, John 
the Baptist, had attained to some estate that we 
are quite strangers to. Was their secret that 
they walked so close to the mind of God in the 
silence that they became gradually changed, even 
in body? Moses and Elijah, as we know, ap- 
peared to men long after their translation, as did 
Jesus the Christ. 

The disciples of Jesus did many wonderful 
things in the way of miracles, and it would seem 
from testimony that all true followers of the 
Master are eligible to receive these gifts or attain- 
ments, and most welcome to have them for the 



The Effect of Living in Christ 165 

asking — and the attaining. The Gospels, Acts of 
the Apostles, and Epistles should be carefully read 
by every Christian in order that he may fully 
realise what his possibilities and privileges really 
are. The Revelation will tell him that if he 
struggle after this, his high calling, what the 
glorious end shall be. St. John (in his Gospel) 
gave us good testimony as regards the status of 
Jesus and our relative status to Him. His opinions 
and testimony should have especial weight with 
us as he was so intimate a friend and lover of 
the Master. John, as humanity goes, would be 
far more likely to set Jesus up as God Incarnate 
than to argue His humanity. Certainly John 
most distinctly teaches the doctrine of Jesus as 
being the chosen Logos of God, the Voice of the 
Father, but just as certainly leaves the identity 
of each Person quite clear. He quotes Jesus as 
saying, "Believe Me that I am in the Father 
and the Father in Me; or else believe Me for the 
very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you 
he that believeth on Me the works that I do shall 
he do also and greater works than these shall 
ye do ; because I go to My Father. And whatever 
ye shall ask in My name that will I do that the 
Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall 
ask anything in My name that will I do. If ye 
love Me ye will keep My commandments and I 
will pray the Father and He shall give you another 
Comforter [or advocate] that He may be with 



166 He Restoreth My Soul 

you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth whom the 
world cannot receive." St. Mark quotes our 
Lord as giving His instructive commands just 
before His ascension thus, "Go ye into all the 
world and preach the Gospel [glad tidings] to the 
whole creation. He that believeth and is baptised 
shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be 
condemned. And these signs shall follow them 
that believe. In My name shall they cast out 
demons ; they shall speak with new tongues ; they 
shall take up serpents, and if they drink any 
deadly thing it shall in no wise hurt them; they 
shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. " 
If Jesus of Nazareth became, or was, the spoken 
Word of the Father to us, which we must allow 
or throw over the Christian faith, then we must 
believe this also. It was a last command with 
promise, an assurance to all believers without 
exception, therefore it must hold good now as then. 
If not, the Gospel of our Messiah, His efficacious 
life, death, resurrection, and promises, or any 
of His traditional history and teachings, are, lot 
and parcel, obsolete. But we take the ground 
that the Gospel, historic and instructive, is an 
authenticated fact. Then if the Christ is a fact 
He said the things above quoted. If He said 
them, God said them, for He was and is the Voice 
of God. He said, "Go and preach," and He also 
promised that these signs should follow with 
them that believed on the preaching of His Word. 



The Effect of Living in Christ 167 

Then according to this, the spirit or soul of a man 
who believes, "who is born anew from above," 
is an immortal being of almost limitless resources 
and possibilities. I have heard it argued by 
consciously weak Christians of to-day that these 
conditions were for the early Church only as they 
needed signs and wonders to convince the people. 
Then, if so, the evangel also was only for con- 
temporary peoples. Do the people not need 
convincing to-day? St. Matthew tells us that the 
risen Christ claimed that all authority had been 
given unto Him in heaven and on earth. So He 
had a right to command and also authority to 
make promises of His presence and ability to see 
that His commands were carried into execution. 
He said, " And lo I am with you alway, even unto 
the consummation of the age." I take that 
to mean the end of His dispensation, when He 
shall have abolished all things unto the Father. 
No Christian can think this age is yet consum- 
mated, therefore Christ's arm is not shortened, 
neither do His promises fail, and we are forced 
into the sorrowful conclusion that there are few 
who believe to-day, or so it appears, from our 
pusillanimous effort after the spiritual possi- 
bilities of our souls. Small wonder that His 
prophetic spirit sorrowfully queries thus, "How- 
beit when the Son of Man cometh shall He find 
the faith in the earth?" The Church Militant, 
or nominal Church Catholic, inclusive of all sects 



1 68 He Restoreth My Soul 

and creeds, from Rome to the Salvation Army, has 
a vast showing of membership. In these many 
and somewhat diverse creeds and sects where 
shall we find the " Faith " being taught or practised 
in its pristine purity and individual soul-strength? 
Where shall we find that splendid Faith that dares 
to claim these strangely magnificent endowments? 
Is the " Faith " extinct or will it revive? We do 
not wish to be fault-finding and would be delighted 
and filled with hopeful joy to learn that we have 
been mistaken. At recent conferences and great 
religious conventions you have heard these same 
laments, and the falling away from the various 
organisations very pointedly noted. He who runs 
may read. We are endeavouring here, not to find 
fault, but to see "how will it affect our lives if we 
live in Christ?" We are taking His own word of 
command and promise as to the preaching of the 
Word; we are also taking His word as to what 
should be the result of this preaching and believing 
of that word. We must allow that the general 
showing of this most potent Faith is very small and 
poor. Also we must allow that many souls all 
down the Christian age have received by their 
faith, in some degree, a portion of this promised 
endowment. That there have been, and are, 
Christians full of holy faith we do not deny, are 
glad to agree to, but that the great combined 
Church is almost faithless we do strenuously 
claim. 



The Effect of Living in Christ 169 

We are not led to infer that all these signs 
should follow or be the gift of each believer, but 
that, as in the case of the talents, some may have 
the ten, while some may have but one. 1 Paul, the 
chief apostle of our Gospel, tells us on this point, 
"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same 
spirit. . . . But to each is given the manifesta- 
tion of the Spirit to profit withal. For to one is 
given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; 
and to another the word of knowledge ... to 
another faith . . . gifts of healing . . . miracles 
. . . prophecy . . . discerning of spirits . . . 
tongues . . . interpretation . . .but all these 
worketh the one and same Spirit dividing to each 
one severally, even as he will." Kindly read 
through the chapter until we reach the 27th verse. 
"Now ye are the body of Christ and severally 
members thereof, and God hath set some in the 
Church, first apostles, second prophets, third 
teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing: helps, 
counsels, divers kind of tongues." Kindly read 
the two following chapters and you will find that 
Paul left to the Church very particular instructions 
regarding the employment of gifts, but that a 
Christian should have no gift had not seemed to 
occur to him, and why should it occur to the 
logical Paul as a possible condition of a Christian? 
The prophet Joel has foretold this prophetic state 

1 1 Corinthians xii. 4. 



170 He Restoreth My Soul 

to mankind to be in the last days. We often hear 
this explained away by the fact that Peter quoted 
this prophecy as being the explanation of the 
phenomena that were then taking place. Cer- 
tainly then and also now. It began with Christ's 
first coming and will finish when His work is 
completed on earth at His second appearance. 
The very last is not yet. This was a blessing 
for the last days of the Church. God did not 
exhaust His power in a few short years. The 
prophet distinctly quotes God as saying, "And it 
shall be in the last days I will pour out My spirit 
upon all flesh." We are without doubt more 
nearly in the last days now than when Peter 
quoted Joel. May we not suppose that God 
gave mankind, through His handful of followers, 
just a taste, or sample, of what might be expected 
in the very end of which the day of Christ and 
the disciples was but the beginning? The begin- 
ning of the end. I once heard a preacher in a 
pulpit make the following pungent remark in regard 
to this criminal unbelief of the Church as to the 
present power of the Spirit: "One would think, 
to hear people talk to-day, that Satan was dead, 
and that God was dying." We heartily wish that 
all preachers in all pulpits saw this same danger. 
As the smaller Jewish Church of the Old Testa- 
ment time was but a sketch, or outline, of a 
greatly larger one, the Church Catholic, we must 
look at the former at its closing dispensation in 



The Effect of Living in Christ 171 

order to see how ours will end. We are loath 
to examine too closely. Let each examine for 
himself. Christ said of the Pharisaical leaders, 
"Let them alone, they are blind guides. If the 
blind lead the blind both shall fall into a pit." 
Again, "Ye blind guides that strain out the 
gnat and swallow the camel." God says through 
the prophet Ezekiel, after various accusations, 
"Behold, I am against the shepherds and I will 
require My sheep at their hand and will cause 
them to cease from feeding the sheep, neither 
shall the shepherds feed themselves any more, 
and I will deliver My sheep from their mouth 
that they may not be meat for them." And 
God proceeds to say that He Himself will seek 
out the sheep whither they have been scattered 
in the dark and cloudy days, and He will feed 
them Himself, and fatten and strengthen them. 
Long before this, God made Enoch to see a vision 
thus, 1 "And I saw till they laid down that sword 
which had been given to the sheep, and they 
brought it back into his house, and it was sealed 
before the presence of the Lord, and all the sheep 
were invited into that house, but it held them not. 
And the eyes of them all were opened to see the 
good, and there was not one amongst them that 
did not see. And I saw that the house was 
large and broad and very full.'' 1 God says through 

iBook of Enoch (R. H. Charles, Ed.). 



172 He Restoreth My Soul 

the prophet Isaiah, using the type of Babylon 
for the great nominal Christian Church in its 
entirety, or Rome, with her many quarrelsome 
daughters, "Now, therefore, hear this thou that 
sittest securely, that say est in thine heart I am 
and there is none beside me; I shall not sit as a 
widow; neither shall I know the loss of children: 
but these two things shall come to thee in a mo- 
ment, in one day ; the loss of children and widow- 
hood in their full measure shall they come upon 
thee." 

The symbol of bridegroom and bride is used 
quite generally throughout the Scriptures as mean- 
ing Christ and His real Church. When we see 
persons individually endeavouring with all their 
souls and strength of character to live the true 
Evangel of Jesus, and endeavouring to be strong 
to serve the race, in His strength, counting not 
the present pleasures of life so much in value as the 
sinless souls of men to be presented to the Father, 
to assist the Redeemer in His work of abolishing 
all things to the Father, then, and only then, 
shall we find the sweet Bride of Christ, His " Help- 
meet for Him." 

When the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, comes 
down from God there will be, we are told, no 
tears, therefore, he who causes one sorrowful 
tear to one child of the race shall have no part 
therein. There shall be no death, so we know 
that any person or system that causes illness or 



The Effect of Living in Christ 173 

disease will have no part therein. There shall 
be no sorrow, so we know that any person or 
system that causes the slightest sorrow to the least 
of the children shall have no part therein. Any 
person or system, habit or condition that causes 
pain, sorrow, ill-health and death, accident, mis- 
ery of any description, shall have no part in this 
Holy City, the home of Christ and His sweetly 
perfect Bride. 

Outside of Jerusalem in the burning pit of 
Tophet in the valley of Hinnom are cast all abomi- 
nations of the city, all uncleanness, and all dead 
things. Still speaking in figure, the Lord tells us 
that the first to be cast into this burning Tophet 
are the fearful. Why the fearful? Because such 
openly confess their doubt of the Creator's ability 
to care for His own. It is an amazing impudence 
in puny man. Then the unbelievers go next, for 
they call God a liar to His face. The abominable 
and those that work such things as are abominable 
are next ejected. Murderers are cast out, not 
only, anarchists and assassins but any person or 
system that shortens any life in any degree, by 
whatsoever method, whether he be worried, worked, 
or driven by want to early death, or stabbed in 
the dark by wicked lie, the sly poison of a broken 
heart, or cruel war of nations, all alike must go 
to Tophet. Sensuality and lust is cast out. 
Sorcerers shall be cast out. Any person or 
system that brings to bear undue influence to 



174 He Restore th My Soul 

another's injury or by some craftily obtained 
knowledge brings hurt to another, or who receives 
teachings from sources other than through Jesus 
Christ's name, in a so-called supernatural way, 
to the injury of any one of the race, or who com- 
pels to injury any one by hypnotic art, or by using 
any other baneful subtle influence over another, 
even though it be only the sneering, freezing 
ostracism intended to force a stray thinker into 
conventional line, all such must be excluded from 
this sacred city to be. Idolaters are to be cast 
out. There is one God and His name one. Any 
person or system that brings any persons, systems, 
acts, or condition or doctrine into such prominence 
as to veil God's pre-eminence and give undue status 
to any lesser entity is idolatrous. What a pantheon 
is the world to-day! Where is the worship- 
per of the true God only? The love of babes, 
wives, husbands, lovers may become idolatrous. 
Love of homes, clothing, social position, religious 
respectability, commercial schemes, creeds, be- 
liefs, schools of thought, politics, patriotism, army, 
literature, loyalty, love of ease, love of fame, 
of worldly honour, of power, of talent, or maybe 
only the love of nasty scandalous gossip, any love 
in fact that attracts a mind and heart from the 
one true centre of life, the Living God, is idolatrous. 
Things in themselves not only harmless but essential 
to our very existence may, by the badly balanced 
heart and mind, become idols. No idols are per- 



The Effect of Living in Christ 175 

mitted to veil the light of God in the Holy City. 
And lastly all liars shall be destroyed. It is as 
difficult for us to relinquish our false theories, 
systems, doctrines, as it is to be utterly truthful 
in our words and ways. But finally even this 
inbred suicidal habit shall be destroyed. When all 
these different forms of evil which at present pre- 
vail, even in our most respectable society, cease, 
then will fall the untrue wife. Then and only then 
can the race live in Christ. "He that over- 
cometh shall inherit these things: and I will be 
his God and he shall be My son." 

"Be with us in that awful hour, 

And by Thy crown and by Thy grave, 
By all Thy love and all Thy power 
In that great day of judgment save." 



CHAPTER VIII 

BORN ANEW FROM ABOVE — THE HOLY CITY 

"Sing, O deathless soul, of apostate man's redemption. 
Pure be this heart! so dare I, though with tremulous accents, 
mortal and weak, to celebrate Him, the divine Reconciler." 

Klopstock. 

IF a human soul be born "anew from above," 
that soul will know all men and movements 
from a new and from an above standpoint. He 
will recognise our Lord as the one anointed Logos 
of God the Father. He will listen only to the 
Logos wherever and in whomsoever he shall find 
Him speaking, be it in the helpful invention of 
machinery, a truthful soul-preserving doctrine, or 
but the seeming trifle of a loving thought or action. 
The Holy City is now gently lowering to the 
earth. Our Judge has already given us His de- 
cision as to what shall remain in it, and what 
He shall cast out. Its coming is inevitable. It 
is near. It is touching our borders. It is stealing 
in amongst our movements like a kindly but severe 
surgical instrument to remove our diseased parts, 
as a sword to forcefully divide the good from the 
evil, as a thief in the night, noiselessly and unex- 
pected to the unguarded, as the bridegroom in 

176 



Born Anew from Above 177 

eastern lore, with many attendants and much 
rejoicing. The wonderful Child of Bethlehem is 
now King of Kings. The time has almost arrived 
when He succeeds the prince of this world in His 
entire rule of the earth, when the kingdoms 
of the world shall have become, in truth, the 
kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, who shall 
reign for ever and ever (or unto the ages of the 
ages). He is working amongst the peoples of the 
earth to-day, bringing about this much-needed 
regeneration, and the poor earth is in great distress. 
He is walking amongst us in kindly pity and helpful 
love, and we sleep and know Him not. He would 
that we awoke and conversed with him regarding 
the new kingdom and inquired more fully of him 
as to the earthly preparation for this delectable 
abode of the children of the race. Instructions 
may be fully received from the Living Christ even 
now. We might presume though that we would 
be expected to carry out the instructions that 
He left with us many centuries ago before we 
should expect newer ones. So we should carefully 
study the word which He left us, and observe 
its commands, to obey them, then when in dilemma 
we may be sure we shall receive what instruction 
we need. This is His promise, and His promises 
are sure. 

We must search for the true way and word of 
Jesus our Redeemer as knights of old sought 
for the Holy Grail. If you know a person or 



178 He Restoreth My Soul 

Church that sneers at the thought of a living, 
present Saviour and of the present, helpful 
power of the Spirit, know such a one as outside of 
the true Church of Christ. If he sneer at the near 
coming of Christ, know him as being asleep, or 
foolishly ignorant of the Scriptures and current 
events, and very stupid. You will probably 
hear him crying out a little later on, "Lord, 
Lord." 

As the Jewish Church represented the great 
Christian body of to-day, so do the Gentiles repre- 
sent the outsiders. The Messiah introduced His 
Evangel to the normal Church of God first, then 
to the Gentiles. So any religious work or any 
presentation of the truth from the Spirit, by 
authority of the Logos, will at first appeal to the 
great nominal Christian Church of to-day. It 
would but carry out the type if they or part of 
them, like the Pharisees of the old Church, prefer 
the more formal and less spiritual phase of their 
faith. There is so much ecclesiasticism which 
appeals so strongly to the selfish heart of man 
that they will altogether probably resent, as did 
the proud Jew, the return to the pure spiritual 
esoteric faith of Jesus. Will they crucify Him, 
only in a modern way, as did the Jew whom they 
despise so much? Will Truth find its strongest 
and surest foothold amongst the Gentiles, amongst 
those who confess not to the name of Jesus the 
Christ of God? Time will tell. 



Born Anew from Above 179 

The Evangel of Jesus appeals only to the hearts 
of simply honest people; those who are earnestly 
trying to become unselfish, who are able to under- 
stand what is meant by dying to self, but living 
to God. His Evangel taught moral philosophy, 
taught that virtue in the vital part of an ego 
brought that ego through the continuity of abiding 
existence, stage after stage. "In My Father's 
house are many abiding places." Our Lord 
Christ passed quickly through the Way (in the 
heavens) in order that He might return, so to 
speak, and lead us up to where we may live eter- 
nally. Maybe not a path in stellar heights, but 
most surely a pathway in soul heights, in leadings 
toward the Absolute Perfection. 

He has said, "All things have been delivered 
unto Me of My Father, neither doth any know 
the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever 
the Son willeth to reveal Him." Then He pro- 
ceeds to invite all to come to Him for rest to their 
souls. I do not see how one who professes belief 
in the written word of God, our Scriptures, can 
take the stand that Jesus has no present power 
as, shall we say, ruler of the executive, the Logos 
of God. Some sects we know deny this authority. 

Is it so absurd that the Author and Finisher of 
the universe should especially prepare and endow 
one out of the race with such qualities as would 
fit Him to have full authority, by superiority over 
His fellows? We see this law working out in 



180 He Restoreth My Soul 

natural life, — one especially fine plant to propa- 
gate from, etc. ; and in bird and beast and the 
flying insect, is there not usually a leader? Our 
groups of peoples are invariably led by one supreme 
mind in whom they willingly or unwillingly vest 
the right of authority. If God made man in " Our 
Image," was it not in accordance with this instinct 
that He implanted within us, to in time give us a 
Leader for our souls, a spiritual Leader who should 
truly represent His will towards us, who should 
lead us home? On the other hand, does not the 
orthodox Church at times claim for Jesus that 
which He never claimed for Himself, nor did 
His disciples for Him, that is, to be God incarnate 
as a babe. I can only find proof that He was 
especially born for this special mission, that is, 
to save the people from their sins, and after 
much soul culture by obedience and suffering He 
became perfected for His great work. "For we 
have not a high priest who cannot be touched 
by our infirmities," etc. If He were God incarnate 
as a babe, and He had taught His disciples so, why 
did He come back after His death and tell them 
that all authority had been given unto Him in 
Heaven and on earth ? We rejoice in the humanity 
of Jesus. We sympathise with, but do we not 
also rejoice in, His human sufferings? Because 
we know it was the only path to the fulfilment 
of his mission. We rejoice that He was fully en- 
dowed with the Christhood, that He sits at the 



Born Anew from Above 181 

right hand of the Father. We rejoice that He 
is the Logos of His, and our, Father. 

If we, in our inmost souls, throw ourselves 
on our Creator, will He turn coldly from us and 
say, " Depart from Me, I never knew you; you 
did not attend the right Church service, or en- 
dorse the best creed"? Methinks I see Him, 
as it were, considering on the digits of one hand 
thus, "The acknowledgment of My Son as 
Viceregent, the absolute inviolable surrender, the 
absolute trust, the absolute obedience, the untiring 
glad service, 'tis enough. If this child will give 
Me allegiance thus he will also harmonise with 
My universal order. Come to Me, child, enter 
the way, strive always to keep thy covenant, 
My Spirit shall strengthen you, My Voice shall 
guide you, and be with you always even to the 
consummation of the age. I am thy God and 
there is none else." 

We know that the Way is straight and few there 
be that walk therein. If we walk therein, we must 
cast aside our much gorgeous paraphernalia of 
useless rags of service and give our service for 
souls to God. That alone is acceptable to Him, 
and not an idolatrous liturgy. 

God said through Jeremiah, xxxi. 33, 34: 
" But this is the covenant that I will make with the 
house of Israel after those days. I will put My 
law in their inward parts and in their heart will 
I write, and I will be their God and they shall be 



1 82 He Restoreth My Soul 

My people; and they shall teach no more every 
man his neighbour and every man his brother 
saying, Know the Lord ; for they shall all know Me 
from the least of them unto the greatest of them. 
. . . For I will forgive their iniquity and their 
sins will I remember no more." John saw a 
vision of the redeemed earth and he tells us thus : 
"I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God the 
Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof, 
and there was no need of sun for it was all day," 
and best of all he tells us, the gates or portals are 
always open. We would draw from these descrip- 
tions with no great stretch of the imagination or 
unlawful twist of meaning, that in the later days 
the denominational aggregation known as the 
Christian Church Catholic would fall, that the 
office of priest or minister would cease in time, that 
all doctrines of salvation by formula would be 
obsolete, that the plain simple way of life and 
righteousness would be as well known by all as 
the time of the day is to us. 

There is a religious anarchism quite as truly as 
a social and political one, and it is folly to busy 
one's self in trying to murder this creed, or that 
"ism," but do as your God tells you to do, " Come 
out of her, My people." Before long the Spirit, the 
soul, of this huge creature will with a dissolution 
shudder pass out of the great, stiffened, incapa- 
citated body and rise to her glorious resurrection. 

Paul said to the Galatians, "My little children 



Born Anew from Above 183 

of whom I am again in travail until Christ be 
formed in you." Then he goes on to explain how 
Hagar represents Sin and the Law and its bondage, 
and the Jerusalem (or city) that now is, but that 
the Jerusalem from above is free (the Holy City) 
and was represented by the true wife Sara and 
her freeborn children, thus denoting that Christ's 
true wife is not bound by the law of Sin, that true 
faith worked through love alone. 

As Woman is used in figure as the Church visible, 
so is Man used frequently in the sense of thought- 
seed, or doctrines, and usages, which go to form 
creeds, and denominations, or schools. We would 
therefore note that phase also. The sin of the 
woman is different from the sin of the man. The 
sin of the woman and her daughters seems to have 
been that which distinguishes a true wife from an 
untrue one. And so with the untrue Church. She 
bears her Master's most honourable name, but 
she is not satisfied, she seeks to lawfully unite 
herself with every worldly advantage in order 
that she may sit a queen amongst her lovers, 
whom she may admire or from whom she may 
obtain advantage. Read her history since she, 
in her growing ambition, united herself to pagan 
Rome in the time of Const antine. Read her varied 
history until the Reformation. Read the news- 
papers to-day for evidence of Jesuitical endeavour 
to return to more influential political power. 

Man in prophecy seems to represent the 



1 84 He Restoreth My Soul 

thought-seed with which the Church reproduces 
itself. As in natural law, so in spiritual. Then 
we must find the real cause of the Church's degra- 
dation with the man. In the Apocalypse we read 
as follows, "And the kings of the earth and the 
princes and the chief captains, and the rich 
and the strong, and every bondman, and every 
freeman hide themselves in the caves and in the 
rocks of the mountains, and they say to the moun- 
tains and the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from 
the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and 
from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day 
of their wrath is come and who is able to stand?" 
This is as certainly a figure as any and all of the 
book of Revelation, with its horses and beasts 
and seas of glass, etc. Here again we find the 
use of the mystic seven denoting completeness or 
the whole. Let us see what this complete whole 
is. 

I. The Kings, or the leading dominating tenets of the 
Church Catholic. 

II. The Princes, or the lesser, but important, dominating 
tenets which in many cases succeed some de- 
ceased king, some absolute doctrine. 

III. Chief Captains, or Military Tribunes, doctrines 

which tend to gather each Church or denomina- 
tion to itself. 

IV. The Rich, the doctrines and usages that bring luxury 

and comfortable indolence to the several distinct 
organisations. 



Born Anew from Above 185 

V. The Strong, those doctrines and usages which tend 
to hold several bodies intact, per se, and most 
tenaciously guard with strong walls and great 
powers of self-protection, also a proselyting 
power, a sort of feudal strength. 

VI. The Bondsman, or those small tenets which are 
pilfered stealthily from falling cults and from 
each other, and forced into service for upholding 
of the various feudal holds, but are not given 
voice as they are not as yet freemen, that is, 
they are forced to labour, and are not privileged 
with public recognition, since as yet they are 
not fully established as truth by the majority of 
a denomination. 

VII. The Freemen, or those small tenets which have 
been pilfered first as bondsmen, but have been 
granted the privileges of citizenship through 
long proven merit, or they are free-born children 
of these various feudal holds, i.e., small tenets 
originating with the user of such. 

Man and Men seem to be used frequently 
in Revelation as personifications of the several 
systems, such as commerce, art, or temporal 
authority. So that in all things pertaining to our 
lives we may consider the term as denoting the 
thought-seed that produces the various systems 
rather than the systems themselves. Read 
Malachi as regards the offering of unsound doc- 
trines on the altar by teachers and priests, and 
of the treachery of the implanting of unholy seed 
in the Church "when He [God] had sought a 
godly seed," and God cursed all such, and He was 
to send the messenger to the Temple and the Lord 



1 86 He Restoreth My Soul 

Himself would come to judge and sift out all that 
which was not of righteousness, and the righteous 
would tread down the wicked. Now we do not 
suppose that a day will come in our civilisation 
when a good (actual) man will trample a bad 
(actual) man into ashes under his feet, that would 
not accord with the creed of our King, "That 
ye love one another" and "bear ye one another's 
burdens and so fulfil the Law," etc. Granted 
a literal interpretation, where then shall you find 
a wholly good man to trample, or a wholly bad 
man to be trampled on? The rich young man 
asked the Master what good thing he could do, 
and he was told that only God could be really 
good, or do good things. Then we must consider 
the righteous people in figure as the righteous 
teachings and usages, and the wicked people as 
the hurtful, unsound doctrines and usages, the 
maimed as those doctrines, etc., partly unsound, 
blemishes as things that tend to deface the beauty 
of truth. All this unsoundness, ugliness, and de- 
fect shall be trampled to ashes by the beautiful, 
symmetrical, the pure and true, rising above it. 
This is in substance the message from this prophet 
to us, from the Father, and later, from the Son 
to us in the Apocalyptic message by St. John. 
The figures change and differ, but the thought 
contained is the same throughout all, viz., that 
at the last days righteousness will rise and destroy 
unrighteousness by displacement. The untrue 



Born Anew from Above 187 

wife, or the abominations that have accrued around 
the Church of Christ, shall fall into the sea, will 
cease to be for ever. The corrupt men, or the 
wicked and unsound doctrines and usages that have 
served to uphold these various feudal systems 
shall be ground to ashes by the analysis of en- 
lightenment. If you look around intelligently, 
you will already see some of these doctrines and 
usages vainly trying to hide themselves from 
this tidal wave of destructive judgment. In all 
holy writ is this story told. Indeed, there is no 
other theme in all the Scriptures besides this with 
its varying settings. 

We are thankful for the stately, poetic, com- 
plete message given us through Isaiah, not alone 
for its satisfying beauty, but for its larger view. 
It is a splendid processional of the affiancing 
and marriage of the Messiah and His Church. 
If it tells us of how God wearies of our shame and 
hypocrisy and utters curses on all uncleanness and 
abominable habits of mind and conduct, it also 
tells us of the day when we shall be real and pure, 
clean and wholesome in mind and body. If it 
tell of difficulties and stumblings on the path, it 
also tells us of a joyful finish. If it bid us, "De- 
part ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch 
no unclean thing : go out of the midst of her, be ye 
clean ye that bear the vessels of the Lord," so 
does it end by assuring us " For as the new heavens 
and the new earth which I will make shall remain 



188 He Restoreth My Soul 

before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and 
your name remain. And it shall come to pass 
that from one new moon to another and from 
one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to 
worship before Me, saith the Lord. And they 
shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the 
men that have transgressed against Me, for their 
worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be 
quenched and they shall be an abhorring unto 
all flesh." So Isaiah terminates this processional 
in a triumphal song. Had we time or space we 
might quote picture after picture, song after song> 
tragedy after tragedy, illustration after illustration, 
sorrow after sorrow, but also joy after joy, hope 
after hope, triumphs of all triumphs, a redeemed 
world; all form this living picture poem. The 
poet of poets does not easily exhaust His flowing 
lines. What pure-minded Christian soul does 
not see the sweet love-song of Christ and His 
white-robed bride in the allegorical Song of 
Solomon? In what state or condition of mind 
or spirit can we be in, when we may not find re- 
sponsive chord in the psalms written or selected 
by David? Who shall read the mournful Lamen- 
tations of Jeremiah and weep not with the fallen 
daughters of Jerusalem, and who after having 
read it will dare deny that she shall fall? Who 
can read the somewhat weird and mysterious epic 
of Job, and not see that it is a song picture of the 
Man and the Woman taken as one entity, the 



Born Anew from Above 189 

world-child, the soul of Man, the first uprightness, 
the term of Satan's rule, with its attendant sickness 
and misery, followed by complete restoration to 
health, happiness, and prosperity, the soul of man 
as union of religious (female) and intellectual 
(male) character, as one entity, with all its con- 
sequent soul-struggle, development, and ultimate 
triumph? Searching in these treasure houses is 
like diving for pearls — dangerous to some, but 
great gain to the better equipped and trained 
diver. If you go into the ocean depths clad 
with an intricate outfit of clothing suitable for a 
state dinner, you will certainly feed the fish 
instead of gather pearls. If you search for God's 
truth in His Word you must leave the state robes 
of clerical formula to others and go alone with 
nothing to trammel the mind but the special garb 
of the truthseeker. You may appear odd-looking, 
like the diver, but you will doubtless, like him, 
find pearls. 

In this fall of the adulterous woman, in this 
terror of judgment of her lovers and sustainers, 
in this disgrace of the wicked men, her thought- 
seed, or wrong doctrines, we do but see the same 
thought- theme, viz., the New Birth. Now it is 
grand edifices, then it will be clean hearts ; now it is 
great numbers, then it will be great sincerity; now 
it is much gain for self, then it will be much giving 
for each other; now it is Pharisaical pride, intel- 
lectual arrogance, and bigoted intolerance, then it 



190 He Restoreth My Soul 

will be meekness, humility, and oneness; now it 
is bitter dissension, then it will be unity; now 
it is too often hate, then it will be always love. 
It will not be "Am I my brother's keeper?" but it 
will be "Bear ye one another's burden and so 
fulfil the Law," "Love one another." When 
each soul individually is "born anew from above," 
then will the corrupt body of the woman fall into 
the sea, and the wicked men be ground to ashes. 
But we rejoice to know that from out their dying 
bodies shall rise the redeemed Man and Woman, 
white-souled, intellectual, healthy, sane, who 
will unite to reproduce a regenerate race, the 
return to "Our Image." Then we may sanely 
and logically strive to emphasise the importance 
of the ego of the individual soul. We must also 
lament the helplessness of one soul alone on this 
holy quest. We must beg of each other for unity 
in this work of life for the race. 

The Book called by us the Bible commences 
with the significant title "Genesis." That is its 
first story, the beginning, the generation is what 
it tells us of. In the very start it suggests this 
same duality, viz., the thought-scheme and also the 
first incompleteness, then the finished product, 
the production of it. In the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth and the earth 
was waste and void, and the spirit of God was 
brooding upon the face of the waters, and God 
said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 



Born Anew from Above 191 

We learn that there is no stillness, no rigid same- 
ness in the universe as far as finite conception 
can reach, be that ken limited by distant vast- 
ness, or minute nearness, in all alike is found 
process, but never absolute stillness or rigid 
sameness, and yet there is always a certain 
measure of completeness in the whole. 

Are we not justified in finding this supreme 
key to all process and continued completeness as 
that excellency of all thought, that " Radiance" 
of the universal cosmos, whom we call God, 
when we behold His infinity, whom we call our 
Father, when we nestle up to His great kind heart 
in the company of His one perfected Son, our 
elder brother, whom we must grow to be like? 
Then to grow up to be Christlike we must enter 
into the spirit of this serial order which is always 
tending towards completeness. To bring it home 
to each of our hearts, we must remember that all 
our actions are preceded by our thought, just as the 
Creator's are, therefore we must keep our minds 
right, we must think right. If our thought 
toward God and man be right, then ritual or no rit- 
ual is of little consequence unless "it causeth 
my brother to offend"; then it becomes an im- 
portant matter of thought or conscience. Believe 
me, we are living in the century of all centuries, 
the century of our Redeemer's triumph. Some 
watchmen are crying out that the day is almost 
here, and alas! some who should be watching 



192 He Restoreth My Soul 

are all too peacefully sleeping; " These are the 
shepherds that cannot understand, they have 
all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, 
one and all from every quarter. . . . And to- 
morrow shall be as to-day," say they, but the voice 
of all thought, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, 
shall soon ring out clear and loud, "1 have set 
watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem: they 
shall never hold their peace day nor night ... 
[they shall cry] . . . take ye no rest ... go 
through the gates . . . prepare the way of the 
people . . . cast up the highway . . . gather out 
the stones, lift up an ensign for the peoples, behold 
the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the 
earth." So we must listen to the watchmen, for 
they are voicing God's awakening message. These 
watchmen are not so much teachers as awakeners. 
Do awaken and then you may see the light for 
your own self, in your own way, only be sure that 
you really are awake and not still sleeping and 
dreaming. 

When the ego of a man arrives at that stage of 
process when he becomes aware of some of his 
possibilities and decides to become religious, he 
is awakening from his useless unattached state and 
is deciding to place himself in harmony with the 
great universal order. Just as in our illustration 
of the electric ball, it must be attached to the live 
wire to be useful, to shine. When we each as a 
unit of a nation decide to become attached to God 



Born Anew from Above 193 

through our Way, which is Christ Jesus, we shall 
become the light of the rest of the world, through 
His Light. God speed the day. 

While we have breath we would gladly tell this 
same old story if by so doing we may awaken the 
joyful assurance in some hearts that it is an infinite 
privilege to be a real child of God, not a chimerical 
thing dragged out of chaos to be a puppet for a 
short while, only to be tossed again into chaos. 
Do not, I pray, be, as it were, chased through a 
miserable retreat by an inexorable Nemesis, but 
rise to your natural position, a younger brother 
of Jesus Christ, a unit of the racial grand man. 
Do not, we pray, be content to be waste, void, 
dark, in the eternal chaos, too indifferent, too 
weak, too wicked, too cowardly to live out your 
destiny as a Son of God, a Child of the King. " In 
that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, 
and ye in Me, and I in you. ... If a man love 
Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will 
love him, and we will come unto him and make 
our abode with him." 

U I We found a Friend; oh, such a Friend! 
So kind and true, and tender. 
So wise a Counsellor and Guide, 
So mighty a Defender. 

"From Him, Who loves me now so well, 
What power my soul can sever? 
Shall life? or death? or earth? or hell? 
No! I am His for ever!" 

13 



CHAPTER IX 

RIGHT-MINDEDNESS BRINGS ETERNAL LIFE 
REASONABLY 

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, 
I thought as a child; now that I am become a man, I have 
put away childish things." 

i Corinthians xiii. n. 

' ' Though heralded with nought of fear, 
Or outward sign, or show; 
Though only to the inner ear 

It whispers soft and low; 
Though dropping, as the manna fell, 

Unseen — yet from above — 
Holy and gentle — heed it well! 
The call to Truth and Love." 

Whittier. 

AS we write, the query is ever rising in our 
mind, Why does the quality of being, called 
by us Life, so utterly depend on qualities that 
might be presumed to be foreign to it ? If there be 
a well understood explanation of it by one or many 
persons, I do not know of it, but we feel that we 
must, at least, satisfy our own reason, and if that 
explanation appeal to another, all the better. Per- 
sonally, we have accepted the theory that "the 
soul returns to God who gave it," or, in other 

194 



Right-Mindedness Brings Life 195 

phrase, we believe that we are started as an 
entity, as a minute atom of pure soul in the midst 
of chaotic surroundings, but in the evolution of, 
time and condition we, step by step, become less 
chaotic, more harmonious, to the great serial order. 
The soul more apparent, the chaotic body less pro- 
nounced, less dense. If a soul after development < 
does not wilfully turn towards evil and again 
become chaotic, debris, extinct, ashes to ashes » 
soulless matter, then it will rise step by step until 
finally it is so entirely in harmony with the All 
Soul that it has not only, by the license of poetic 
figure, but in the most absolute actuality, re- 
turned to God from which as a mere atom, or ray, 
it at first emanated. There was much disputing 
at the time of the advent of Christ, concerning 
the future life or continuity of existence after 
physical death. Christ, knowing this, and doubt- 
less having been questioned concerning it, tells 
them this: " In My Father's house are many man- 
sions; if it were not so, I would have told you." 
That one utterance should silence these over- 
hopeful souls who think physical death will 
change them instantly into perfect beings; 
there is no warrant for such hope. Many man- 
sions, "I go to prepare one for you." Character 
will count for degree of station, as Christ recog- 
nised no degree in the Kingdom of God other 
than faith and character. Paul, who received 
most direct teachings, and had most unusual 



196 He Restoreth My Soul 

opportunity for understanding something of the 
life to be, the released life, says, "For we know 
that if our earthly house of our bodily frame be 
dissolved, we have a building from God, a house 
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For 
verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon 
with our habitation which is from [or in] heaven." 
He also tells of his being caught up into the third 
heaven and hearing things which it was not 
lawful for him to repeat, doubtless because his 
hearers were not able to take in what he would 
tell them without injury, just as you may not 
always explain things fully to a child. Paul calls 
his hearers babies, that must needs have milk, 
not grown men that could eat the meat of the word. 
If we were all alike, all to be transformed in the 
twinkling of an eye into absolute highest attain- 
ment of perfection, what incentive would we have 
for striving, or how would we escape that rigid 
stillness which is death? 

If I wish to find the way to obtain this continued 
existence, I should look into the analogous teach- 
ings of natural physical life. We have been able 
to discover more or less fully what assists us to 
live healthily, sanely, and happily in the physical 
life. The laws of hygiene, sanitation, and medi- 
cine are employed for the body physical. Thought, 
a vast amount of the most skilful thought of our 
race, is employed on this most laudable theme 
and with great success, but not with absolute cer- 



Right-Mindedness Brings Life 197 

tainty in any case. People still die. We may 
logically presume that these men who make a 
study of such laws know what state chemically 
exists when illness occurs, and just what drug, 
etc., will change that chemical state to former 
health, etc. It is the thought, or want of thought, 
the proper cure applied, or not applied, that re- 
stores health or sustains disease. If bad sanitation 
exists, that must be righted, if bad habits of 
hygiene are indulged in, they must cease, then 
(speaking of natural law alone) the patient will 
become well and live; if these laws are not applied, 
then, by natural law, he will die. Now it would 
seem plausible to me that the thought is the real 
reason of restored health, and we know that in 
many cases thought will restore the health without 
the often too plentiful drugs, etc. . . . We hope 
to see the day when "Our Image" will not be a 
walking drug shop, but that time has not yet 
arrived. 

If God be Thought itself, then it stands to 
reason that Thought is our most enduring quality. 
All our minor qualities are but units of it, then 
all efforts should bend toward the supreme end of 
healthfulness of mind and soul, for these alone 
endure. "As a man thinks, so is he." This is 
an ancient proverb, but it will appeal strongly 
to our reason to-day, when Thought is slowly 
rising to the throne of man's soul. Christ said that 
heaven was within the heart of man. 



198 He Restoreth My Soul 

Now if we can but pin our faith and memory 
to a very few vital points we shall be so busy with 
ourselves for awhile that we shall forget to quarrel. 

God our Father is in His greatest excellency, 
Thought, or else we shall be puppets in a tumbling 
chaos. Some of His excellency is in each of us; 
that is the quality by which we live, even physi- 
cally, by our thought, or some one else's for us. 

We each have, as we advance in intellect, 
some ideal, some conception of what God's 
qualities are. As the civilisation of the race 
advanced, so did its conception of God advance. 
The purely Jewish ideal was a vast advance in 
common idolatrous conceptions. The Greek phi- 
losophers also in some cases had quite admirable 
ideals of the chief god of their many gods. In 
time one came with so high a conception of God 
that He knew Him to be His Father, He was far 
in advance of His age and embodied all that is 
good in all cults in His teaching. He is still with 
us, and soon we shall see God as we saw Him. 
This first fruits of the race, Jesus the Anointed 
One, told us just how to think and to act. If you 
notice, He always wished you to think right. He 
judged the thoughts alone. If an action were 
wrong, He reproved it, but He reproved the 
thought if there were no action, i.e., if the action 
were prevented only by circumstance, and not by 
choice of will. Therefore we should carefully 
study His conception of God as we can have no 



Right-Mindedness Brings Life 199 

higher. If we study the " Sermon on the Mount " 
we shall find that His ideal was too high for His 
time, and only in irony could we say it is suitable 
now. Of what use was His ideal then? Why did 
He not make it a workable one? We think that the 
Master was building the foundation for His whole 
scheme. He lived His own ideal and the Father 
acknowledged Him as His only Son. Let us look 
upon this sermon as a thesis of His doctrine, 
by which we may train our minds for eternity. 
Let us look upon His ideal until we become like 
it. If we cannot always follow closely, let us not 
blind ourselves to our failure, but be determined 
to come nearer to the ideal next time. Always 
let us remember that we have for our judge in these 
things one who has wrestled with them Himself. 
The efforts towards seems to be counted most; 
as the widow's mite, the return of the prodigal son, 
the censure of the man who buried his one talent. 
Many scarcely understand what evangelists 
mean — and we sometimes doubt if they themselves 
know — when they call out continually and emo- 
tionally "to trust in the Lord," "Believe in Him 
and be saved." One sincere intelligent man told 
me that it was only words to him, and absolutely 
without meaning. This call, accompanied with 
a certain hypnotic power, that some make use of 
in all spheres of activity, brings many into the 
Church, and when there they are quite at a loss 
as to what to do with themselves ; so they go into 



200 He Restoreth My Soul 

Church routine, work, pay their taxes, and hope 
that they are in the right vehicle to arrive in 
Heaven at last. Why, my young convert, to 
believe in Him is to follow Him. Not every one 
that says, "Lord, Lord, but they that do the will 
of My Father." If we try to do the will of God, 
we shall know of the doctrine, our judgment and 
conscience will be attuned more nearly to God's 
perfection. To trust in Christ, what is that? 
All authority is given to the risen Christ. He 
said, "I will send the Comforter to you," and "Lo 
I am with you alway," etc. He has full authority 
to help us and to send help to us in our weakness. 
Do not think of this from a spiritualist' s stand- 
point, but only from the real Christian one. We 
may receive assistance if we ask, nay, we do re- 
ceive it when we are trying to do that which is 
lawful and right. "Are they not all ministering 
spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them 
that shall inherit salvation?" "See that ye despise 
not one of these little ones; for I say unto you 
that in heaven their angels do always behold the 
face of My Father who is in heaven." Paul, and 
he had seen and heard strange things, said to the 
early Christians, "But ye are come unto Mount 
Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the new 
Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to 
the general assembly and Church of the firstborn 
who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge 
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 



Right-Mindedness Brings Life 201 

and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, 
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh 
better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse 
not him that speaketh. . . . Wherefore receiving 
a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have 
grace, whereby we may offer service well pleasing 
to God with reverence and awe. ... So with 
good courage we say, 'The Lord is my helper, 
what shall man do unto me?' . . . We have 
an altar, whereof they have no right to eat that 
serve the tabernacle" (or ritualism only). 

Surely these few passages will refresh our 
mind and belief that when a soul turns to God 
and tries to do that which is right he has the 
direct assistance of the entire hosts of Heaven 
by order of God the Father, of His perfected Son, 
Jesus Christ, and of the holy executive under the 
command of Christ. This body of angels, of 
spirits of just men made perfect, aye, and Christ 
and the very God Himself, all unite to help him. 
"And lo I am with you alway." "If a man love 
Me he will keep My word, and My Father will 
love him, and will come unto him, and we will 
make our abode with him. . . .But the Comforter, 
even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send 
in My name, he shall teach you all things and 
bring to remembrance all that I said unto you." 
So you see that we have very valid reason for 
trusting Him. 

If you wish to fully realise the oneness of the 



202 He Restoreth My Soul 

Christian with Jesus Christ and the Father, and 
fully realise on what this union depends, read and 
re-read those sweetest, most endearing words 
that have ever come from the hand of God or 
man, beginning with "Let not your heart be 
troubled," etc., until you come to the assuring pas- 
sage, "These things have I spoken unto you that 
in Me ye may have peace. In the world ye have 
tribulation ; but be of good cheer ; I have overcome 
the world." 

So we see that unity of thought with our elder 
brother who has "overcome" will bring us into 
unity of thought with God who is Thought. We 
may speak of time, space, power as attributes 
of the All God, or perhaps rather divisions of His 
infinity, but we shall readily see that that which 
we may term thought is the radex from which 
all qualities, quantities, or energies issue. So 
we say to ourselves, "Think right and live or 
think evil and die, because right is God, evil is 
death." 

Some over-zealous theologian will say probably, 
"You place no dependence on the atonement, I 
see you are not orthodox in your views." I must 
answer this altogether likely, sincere critic, thus — 
" I make no war on your ' isms ' ; if you retain your 
ignorant and unsupported view, I am sorry for 
you. You will sometime know that the Blood 
of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. You will 
know that in the same sense He is the Bread of 



Right-Mindedness Brings Life 203 

Life, the Way, the Truth, the Water of Life, and 
He Himself always took the position of having 
been sent into the world to cleanse the people 
from their sins, through belief in, and obedience 
to, His teaching, life, and authority. All Christians 
should be very careful not to think idolatrously of 
the blood and body of our blessed Lord. Cer- 
tainly He died for our sakes to complete the old 
symbolic covenant between God and fallen man, 
but the saving from death of the soul is, from 
Scripture teaching, the cleansing of the heart of 
man from sin by a listening obedience to a living 
risen Saviour. Not saved from eternal torment 
by a crucified Jesus of Nazareth, but saved from 
eternal death by a risen Christ Jesus." 

I emphasise this cleansing of the thought of 
our race most earnestly because I find that this 
was Christ's mission amongst us, that this cleans- 
ing is the Way of Life. That the lack of it is the 
cause of all evil and trouble on the face of our fair 
earth to-day, and the cause of mortality. That 
the lack of this cleansing is the reason that our 
one and only enemy whom we have before noted, 
viz., Selfishness, is just this filthy state of our 
minds. Never think of your soul as being filthy, 
because that alone is pure, the ray of God within 
us which ever points us upwards. No, it is our 
mind that is filthy, that must be trained to become 
like-minded unto Christ. 

And so, with the Evangelist, we beg of the race 



204 He Restore th My Soul 

to " Trust in Christ Jesus," "To believe in Him 
and be saved." We shall be cleansed from our 
sinning then by His assistance, we shall in time 
be like Him, for we shall know Him as He really 
is. Let us not trouble about our odds and ends 
of doctrines, but just go on with the cleansing of 
the mind; and after we have become perfectly 
clean and pure we will be in better condition to 
"know of the doctrine," if we need such. 

Again we say, with Paul, "Think right." As 
thought precedes action always, so it is of first 
importance. We cannot always do that which we 
think to do, because our circumstances do not 
permit. Thus, for illustration, I, having only 
a subsistence, desire to relieve all the poverty 
in the world, which is, of course, absurd for me 
to endeavour to do. I, having a moderate income 
and some time at my disposal, wish to help some 
one who is my neighbour over a difficult path. 
This I can do. The redemption of the world 
through Christ will be accomplished by "everyone 
doing the duty that lies nearest him and doing it 
willingly and well." We, mostly all of us, vaguely 
desire to work out this redeeming formula for 
the world generally, and ourselves in particular. 
We do so desire that every one else should be good 
in order that we may have the aid of proper en- 
vironment, that it may be more nearly possible for 
us to be good. This desire is one of the laws 
of our spiritual nature. It is difficult for a blade 



Right-Mindedness Brings Life 205 

of corn to grow and mature to seed where no other 
is able to germinate. The ground must be pre- 
pared, then all seeds will grow, and there will be 
a rich harvest. We rejoice to realise that there 
is much uprooting and ploughing of the spiritual 
earth to-day. The Thought-Man of our race is 
very busy trying to bring the soil into proper con- 
dition for the good seed to grow and the harvest to 
mature. 

We find that even in our legislative bodies 
strenuous efforts are being made to set things 
on a little better basis. The modern spirit of the 
entire Church Catholic is earnestly working in 
endeavour after true Christianity, to the evident 
alarm of the mere formalist. What is termed 
the "working class" is with great zeal endeavour- 
ing to build walls of protection around — itself. 
There are two classes which in themselves seem 
to lie inert, the one hopeless, the other thoughtless : 
the very poor and the very rich. What can 
the very poor man do, but remain poor and fill 
his heart with bitterness unless he be most Christ- 
like. The very rich man, how can he be different 
to what he is when he has been cradled in lux- 
ury and ease? He too must remain as he is, be 
utterly oblivious to all woe, and have none of 
the spirit of Christ within him, or he will be un- 
easily searching for the wisest way to serve the 
race. This many of them are now doing. I, 
personally, have the greatest sympathy with the 



206 He Restore th My Soul 

poor and rich; the "middle class" have not the 
temptations of either of these much tempted 
so-called "upper" and "lower" classes of human- 
ity. The poor are helpless except to become earn- 
est Christians, in that they will, at least, find 
peace and content of soul, though the body be 
starving. They may pity and pray for the rich, 
knowing that a man who remains rich when he 
should be relieving distress can never enter the 
kingdom of God. It was this most lovable class, 
the rich, that was represented by the young 
ruler whom our Saviour instructed in so poignant 
a manner. Though our Lord saw so much that 
was good and lovable, even for His perfect mind, 
still He sent the young man away very sorrowful 
— for he was rich — and the Lord had said he was 
to give it to those who needed it. Also the Master, 
in parable, taught that awful truth that in the 
Kingdom of Heaven He would not recognise the 
rich man as a citizen who had not ministered to 
the wants of His little ones. 1 It is easy for me, 
and others, who are neither rich nor poor, to call 
loudly on the rich to give up their possessions to the 
poor, but were I or my class so rich, could we give 
up gracefully? I doubt it. I would suggest, if 
I may be permitted, that all rich persons in our 
kingdom or empire should meet and unite to form 
a "trust," and with heads bowed before God, 

1 For Economics of Primitive Christianity see Acts iv. 
31-35 inclusive. 



Right-Mindedness Brings Life 207 

Christ, and the Holy Spirit, discuss privately, 
amongst themselves, this matter. Theirs is a 
unique position to-day. They have a most 
gigantic power in their hands for the redemption 
of the earth physical. Now it is a cruel tyrannical 
octopus: they may in a moment of decision 
change it into a loving mother's arms. Will 
they do it? We love to know that many of the 
individual rich are earnestly trying to help the 
poor in a small way. Others dole out a few pitiful 
pence from their overloaded purses, but who 
treats the matter from the higher law? Again 
I say, I do most of all pity the rich that they are 
losing an opportunity that would bring comfort 
to the poor of the race, and content to their own 
souls throughout eternity. May God in His mercy 
pity the blinded rich ! 

If it be so difficult for the rich to be just, those 
of the merely " comfortably provided for" should 
do all they possibly can to alleviate this appalling 
state of this under class, this driftwood of our 
nation. Many gems are hidden in the grime of 
poverty. Given equal conditions all men are equal : 
not alike, but equal. The poor man is not always 
a fool, nor the rich man a philosopher. The range 
of talent does not vary much, given equal condi- 
tions. Our one business in life is to study the 
means by which we, as a race, may return to our 
primitive nature when God had found and called 
us good, when all had equal chance to develop. 



208 He Restoreth My Soul 

There is an unwritten doctrine that most in- 
fluentially controls all lesser ones. It would seem 
to be a step between Jewish religion and Christ's 
ideal. I say unwritten because I think it has 
never been discussed or doubted. It is certainly 
maintained as a position in all our Church doctrine, 
and has served to hold the Church together by the 
ties of selfishness, rather than love. It is this: 
that all doctrines are formulated from the stand- 
point of do this, or, do that, and you will save 
your own soul. It will do for dark age religion, but 
not for the daylight of God's Holy City. It was 
not Christ's ideal at all. Mediaeval doctrine says 
do this, or do that, and save yourself. Christ 
says, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so 
fulfil the Law. 1 ' We see no intimation that Christ 
did as we know of Him doing for the reason of 
saving Himself, but only that the race might 
live. We personally see it that He gave up 
His own personality to be the Logos of God. 
Paul so understood it, or thus it presents itself to 
us. He says, "And when all things have been 
subjected unto Him, then shall the Son also 
Himself be subjected to Him that did subject all 
things unto Him, that God may be all in all." 
This was to be after Christ had laid down all 
rule. Then must we not certainly conclude that 
Jesus the Messiah gave up His long experience 
which other human beings have, in order to be 
the Voice of God to the race, in order to save 



Right-Mindedness Brings Life 209 

the race from their sins? We must then conclude 
also from the reading that after we have all be- 
come sons of God then Jesus our Messiah will lay- 
down all rule and go through experiences Himself. 
This was His great sacrifice, this was the travail 
of His soul that the prophet speaks of. I speak 
of this at the present point because I wish to 
show that real Christianity does not consist in 
believing in a formula that will save one's self from 
eternal torture, nor is it a clean, just life attached 
to such formula, but it is the spirit of Christ 
who thought not His own life dear that He might 
save others. What we do, we must do for all* 
Selfish religion says, "This will save me pain." 
Christ likeness says, "This will tend to saving 
the people from their sins." Christ never once 
taught formula, He only taught purity of life, and 
a spirit of offering one's self for the general good. 
And He knew He was right, that the words were 
His Father's. Therefore He pleaded with the 
people to believe in Him, for the very works' sake* 
He said. The work, that was always His cry. 
Do. "Not every one that saith Lord, Lord, but 
he that doeth the will of My Father." 

Should we then not wish to live ourselves, but 
only wish that others should live in happiness? 
This would be to argue against all nature. To 
desire to live is so inherent in every fibre of our 
being that we could not resist it if we would, unless 
we became insane. Knowing and granting that 



210 He Restoreth My Soul 

it is good to live, let us put the selfish idea away, 
remembering the fact that others also wish to live. 
Our first step in the Christlif e would bring us to see 
our race as one man in whom all units are equal, 
given equal condition. We should work first in 
our country to bring about the condition in which 
all men may have a chance to be real men and 
women, neither slaves nor soulless animals. Will 
Socialism bring about this issue? I would judge 
that the answer would depend on what your partic- 
ular definition of Socialism is. If it be merely 
a screeching of "Down with the rich and great," 
we would answer, "No, a thousand times, no." 
If by Socialism you mean Christ's ideal, "That 
ye bear one another's burdens," and "That ye 
love one another," I answer, "Yes, certainly yes." 
But why steal from Christianity her own honour- 
able name? Why not still call it Christianity? I 
have never been able to see the need of Socialism 
purely as Socialism. It is at its best Christianity, 
at its worst it is merely a class agitation of a 
selfish type. Much that it demands is, of course, 
good for the race, but why call it any name? 
It is the teaching of the Master if it is good. 
No Socialist can formulate a better or more far- 
reaching creed than, "Bear ye one another's 
burdens and so fulfil the Law." Some one may 
accuse the writer as being opposed to the move- 
ment, but not so. Although it be full of selfish- 
ness, overbearance, and in most cases irreligion, 



Right-Mindedness Brings Life 211 

it would seem, if one searches widely, to be a 
movement toward the redemption of the earth, not 
in itself so right, but as tending to awaken the 
selfish, sleepy Church to her duty. When real 
Christianity obtains, Socialism will cease. I think 
all sincere agitators will agree with me in this. 
I would just at this point appeal to this vast body 
to recognise Christ as your head; follow your 
agitations wholly on His lines, and you will be a 
tremendous power for the redemption which 
you all so much desire. Your class of thought 
is essential to the better working out of the social 
condition of the great " middle class" of our 
nation. Already we see governmental recognition 
of the voice of this adjusting effort. It is the 
little cloud that, portends the rain of a little later 
date. Your success wholly depends on whether 
you have, as an incentive, love of all humanity, 
or love of one class only, and hate of the balance, 
for Christ will not assist the hater of men. Be 
sympathetic with the rich and powerful, they 
have so much to give up. Would you give up 
great wealth to appease the wrath of agitators? 
I doubt it. Would you give up great wealth for 
the sake of the general brotherhood? The best 
of you might, but I doubt it. Until you have a 
Christlike mind within yourselves, and your 
corporation, how can you exact it from those 
whose business, whose one aim in life has been to 
amass wealth, or hold on to that which they have? 



212 He Restoreth My Soul 

I would suggest that every company of men who 
unite in mind to demand better remuneration or 
conditions from their employer, or who conclude 
to "strike," if they are refused such demands, 
become real, sincere, wise Christians, and first 
meet together in earnest prayer to God to assist 
them in this just demand. Ask God to soften 
the heart of this employer and give him a better 
sense of justice, and pray that you and he may 
have only the common good at heart, and patience 
to endure where things cannot be immediately 
righted. Then go to him in sincerity and kindness 
and only from a truly Christian standpoint, and 
tell him what you want. Employers have feelings 
and consciences, even if they sometimes do seem 
cold as stone to your demand. Get yourself 
in harmony with the All-Thought and you can 
demand what is right for you. You should not 
desire more. You must remember that God will 
not fail until He have set justice in the earth. We 
must take the stand in writing this that there 
would be no cause for the Socialist if Christianity 
in its purity obtained, but since the adulterous 
phase of the Church is so prevalent, the Socialist 
is useful as bringing the rights of the mass into 
prominence. But a Socialist had better not be a 
fanatic, he loses his great influence when he uses 
fanatical measures. Calm reasoning in a wholly 
Christian spirit is outside of prayer his most 
influential weapon. 



Right-Mindedness Brings Life 213 

And Christian Science — so-called — if we had 
those powers which Christ promised to His believ- 
ers, and which should distinguish the Christian 
from the world, would she have such a wonderful 
victory over the Christian Churches as she 
has had? She is only a voice of reproof to the 
followers of Christ, and will disappear before 
the Light of the Holy City, as does a flickering 
torch before the Sun. 

And weird spectral Spiritism, what of her? 
Is she not a far-reaching voice recalling to our 
minds that there is a real living future existence 
for us? That spiritual life is real? That our so- 
called dead are very much alive? That angels 
exist in reality? That we are ignoring the power 
of the executive of God, of the living Jesus Christ 
and His very active government? That we are 
ignoring the presence and ministry of this assem- 
bly? And we, in our insane bigotry, allow this 
phantom from Hades to dance around before our 
eyes, and we try to catch and destroy it in our 
blindness, refusing to see any lesson in it, because 
it is so unclean. Phantom demons bother and 
tempt us freely. The ministering angels come only 
by command of God through Christ, and specially 
through our prayer to God and our sincere ac- 
ceptance. There is still the school of the prophets. 
God is not dead. High Heaven is no visionary 
phantasm. A Spiritist had better become a true 
believer in Christ, and perhaps he may find out 



214 He Restore th My Soul 

a few things about his cult as did Paul and 
John. 

All these false voices should be given very sane 
treatment. It will invariably be found that real 
Christianity embraces all that is good in any 
school or "ism." The balance had better be cast 
back to the place from which the evil part of it 
emanated. Reasonable analysis is best in all sen- 
sational movements, no matter what form they 
may take. 

This must be the case with all reformers, no 
matter by what name they may be known. After 
all, is it not the citizen who really rules the Zeitgeist 
of a nation? — or rather, we might say he is the 
Zeitgeist. Then we may, with greater accuracy, 
place the responsibility of Christ's redemptive 
work (outside of Himself) on the race, or nation, 
or man, as a citizen rather than a statesman, 
priest, reformer, socialist, or any class-man. 
Every man, woman, and child is a full citizen, each 
in his own way. God says, "I will put My 
law in their inward parts, and in their heart will 
I write it," "And they shall teach no more every 
man his neighbour, and every man his brother, 
saying, Know Jehovah, for they shall all know Me, 
from the least of them unto the greatest of them." 
Again, "He hath showed thee, O man, what is 
good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee, 
but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk 
humbly with thy God? " That is true citizenship, 



Right-Mindedness Brings Life 215 

and is the forerunner of the New Commandment 
that our Redeemer gave to his real Church, 
"That ye love one another, even as I have loved 
you, that ye also love one another. By this 
shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye 
have love one to another." The Holy City is ap- 
proaching, is very near. This is the test of citizen- 
ship, "If ye love one another." Paul knew this 
full well when he wrote his beautiful lines regarding 
love. " If I speak with the tongues of men and of 
angels, but have not love, I am become a sounding 
brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have 
the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and 
all knowledge; and if I have all faith so as to re- 
move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 
And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and 
if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, 
it profiteth me nothing." Then we may ask 
in dismay, what is this love that is so far above our 
highest efforts? Paul continues, "Love suffer eth 
long and is kind: love envieth not: love vaunteth 
not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself 
unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, 
taketh not account of evil: rejoiceth not in un- 
righteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth, beareth 
all things, believe th all things, hopeth all things, 
endureth all things." So we see to be citizens of 
the Holy City we have to be certainly very clean- 
minded persons. To love our fellow-citizens is not 
to smile kindly on them, nor does it in the slightest 



216 He Restoreth My Soul 

savour of sexual love, nor is it fanatical agitation, 
but only purity of mind, one toward another. 
This is true of man, woman, and child. 

Our first office as the individual is to live each 
one himself. Our second office is to seek to make 
conditions so that our fellow- citizens may live 
also. Our third office is that which induces 
us to seek assistance in our impotent efforts from 
the "Eternal outside of ourselves that makes 
for Righteousness/' Thus we fulfil our destiny. 
Our greatest office is to bring ourselves in close 
relation to the Father. We can do this only by 
living in close relation to His Son, and those who 
go to make up His sweet Bride. We cannot 
come into close relation with the Saviour of men, 
unless we, like Him, are willing to lay aside all 
selfishness, and give our lives as a glad offering 
for our fellow- citizens. So shall we live. While 
we unconsciously desire life, we should only think 
of the lives of others. This is Christ's Christian- 
ity. No prayer wheel can accomplish this divine 
Sonship. No formula can save our lives from one 
moment to the next. With this love of God and 
Man in our hearts, this peace of God that passeth 
all understanding, we may smile at the drawn 
dagger, or a callous world's derision. 

"Thus am I doubly armed — my death and life, 
My bane and antidote are both before me, 
This in a moment brings me to an end, 
But this informs me I shall never die. 



Right-Mindedness Brings Life 217 

The soul secured in her existence, smiles 

At the drawn dagger, and defies its point. 

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself 

Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years; 

But Thou shalt flourish in immortal youth 

Unhurt among the war of elements, 

The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds." 



CHAPTER X 

A GOOD CITIZEN — A REDEEMED PEOPLE 

"By their fruits ye shall know them." 

Matthew vii. 20. 

JESUS, in His memorable prayer to the Father 
before His crucifixion prayed thus, "I pray 
not that thou shouldest take them from the world, 
but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil 
one" (or out of evil). The Lord Jesus Christ 
did not institute convents or monasteries, but 
taught His disciples to live in the world amongst 
men, but not to be worldly minded. Christ says, 
"If two of you shall agree on earth as touching 
anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for 
them of My Father who is in heaven. For where 
two or three are gathered together in My name, 
there am I in the midst of them." Therefore for 
obvious reasons of even so selfish or self -protecting 
a nature, it were wise to seek to inspire the desire 
for life of the soul in those with whom we come in 
contact in our every- day relations. Thus may 
we, united in spirit, both or all, stand and en- 
dure, when we should each, alone, grow faint and 
fail. But for higher reason we should seek to im- 

218 



Good Citizen — Redeemed People 219 

part this holy influence to others, viz., for their 
own sakes, counting not our own selves. For still 
higher reasons, viz., our relations to the Father, 
demand that we help in this regenerating work. 
And so our religion must simplify itself into a 
very small creed. Each soul stands bare as the 
new-born child before the Judge, free of all en- 
vironments of social, intellectual, or clerical clap- 
trap. Just myself and my Judge alone. Church, 
State, Commerce, Society, Education or any phase 
of society is not in itself responsible for the appall- 
ing conditions that exist to-day, even in our own 
empire. It is the individual man and woman 
wholly who is responsible for the deadly crimes 
that are committed in our midst. I do not so 
much mean the common murder or burglary, as 
those satanic crimes which are instigated behind 
respectable appearances; those crimes against the 
body, mind, aye, and soul of our empire. The 
deadly apathy of the favoured few, the hate and 
curses of the unfortunate many, when one thinks 
on these things, the hopelessness of individual ef- 
fort is enough to drive one to despair. But when 
we know what unity of purpose can accomplish, we 
glow with enthusiastic hope and courage. So we 
feel we cannot cry too loudly or too often to the 
sleeping citizens of our nation to awaken and unite 
to destroy all things that tend to the destruction 
of God's Image. Remember that "given equal 
conditions all men are equal"; also remember 



220 He Restoreth My Soul 

that the possession of fortunate conditions now 
will tend against us in the present testing judg- 
ment which is taking place. It will, we think, be 
easier for the unfortunate to enter the Holy City 
than the wealthy and powerful, not that the poor 
are holier, but that they are less tempted to 
thoughtless selfishness. The crimes of the poor 
are those which are more amenable to law, such as 
brawling, petty theft, etc. It is not wise for one 
to make unqualified assertions, or to make 
rigid class distinctions, but in such a class-ridden 
country as Great Britain, class distinction must 
be recognised. But we would beg of the wealthy 
man to remember that there are only three offices 
in life for him to fill in order to work out his destiny 
as a unit of God, rather than a unit of a parasitical 
class. First, he must have the sane desire to live 
righteously and be inspired by the desire and hope 
to live continuously. Second, in examining his 
conscience as regards his daily walk, he will find 
that he is co-traveller with a vast number of other 
souls. He will find that the touch point of his con- 
science is how he treats his fellow-men, and in what 
spirit he receives their treatment of him. Then 
will logically follow his third office, viz., his recog- 
nition of the Great Over- Soul as his sustainer 
and helper in his worthy efforts. His conscience 
will be sharpened, if he be honest, by observing 
how other souls treat each other, when it has 
no immediate bearing on his own well-being. 



Good Citizen — Redeemed People 221 

This we may term criticism. " Judge not that ye 
be not judged." We should not criticise in some 
other person that which we excuse in ourselves. 
Our only sane and honest criticism must arise from 
a wholesome desire to learn to be wise, by profiting 
by the observing of other people's experiences. 
Also we may help each other by the very kindly 
spoken word of admonition. We can logically 
have no right to correct another's fault if we 
practise the same. Even if we have not his 
particular fault, we surely have some other one 
equally offensive to God and man. The same 
God-Man who warned, " Judge not that ye be 
not judged," also commanded, "Bear ye one 
another's burdens and so fulfil the Law." When 
Cain had slain his brother, God called to him, 
"Where is Abel thy brother?" and he said, 
"I know not, am I my brother's keeper?" Poor 
Cain was driven out into the wilds a fugitive. 
He was in deadly fear that some one would find 
him and kill him. But unfortunately for our 
race no one did kill him, but he married and begat 
children. The crime of Cain is a taint in our 
blood. Perhaps we are not abusive when we claim 
that the "bluest" blood is often the most badly 
tainted with it. We may be proud of our lineage 
but if we look into the historic circumstances 
which led to our great landed titles we shall 
find much of this taint of Cain accruing to it. 
Can any one tell me why one man should 



222 He Restoreth My Soul 

withhold that which would feed hundreds of the 
hungry ones, merely that he may go out for a day 
or two's so-called pleasure, shooting a few little 
rabbits, pheasants, or grouse, or the gentle-eyed 
tame deer? "Am I my brother's keeper?" 
Can you tell me why a sweet, gentle-voiced, 
cultured woman should attend almost daily 
amusements and so-called hospitable entertain- 
ments which incur as much personal expense in one 
day as would keep in health a starving family 
for a year? Some one may fanatically cry out, 
"She is a monster!" No! she is not a monster, 
but often in very truth is one of the sweetest of 
gentlewomen. But — she is the victim of a deadly 
thoughtlessness which brings in its trail all 
manner of phases of selfishness. "Am I my 
brother's keeper?" My dear lady, your jewels 
will be few when you are judged at the testing 
time. The testing time is now. Already the 
sane few think you unprincipled and short-sighted. 
In the after years, it will bring the honest blush 
to your cheek to think of how you have decked 
yourself out. The little babes of the slums are 
crying day and night for your pretty deckings. 
They will never cease until your gentle, thought- 
less ears turn to hear then* cry. Many are starv- 
ing, they will never cease calling to you. 

The moral law demands more equality of con- 
dition than now obtains. Expediency demands 
that our race be bettered in the individual. Too 



Good Citizen — Redeemed People 223 

much luxury and indolence begets an inferior race 
of men and women. Too much starvation and 
squalor begets an inferior race of men and women. 
Are there no patriots to-day? When the individ- 
ual has changed from a lover of self to a lover 
of the whole, we shall all be patriots. When 
we, as individuals, are truly regenerated, we 
shall, like Abel, make offerings acceptable to our 
Father instead of as now impudently cry back 
to Him, "Am I my brother's keeper?" 

As it is hard for a rich man to enter the king- 
dom, it should be much easier for those who have 
less to tempt them. The great mass of represen- 
tative citizens are those to whom we turn our 
immediate hopes. It is too much to ask an 
unregenerated man to feed all of God's children 
that he has means for so doing. It is not fair. 
We find the poor are helpless and hopeless, so the 
between class must do it. 

Of this class came our Redeemer. To this 
class we turn our hopes. I must beg and pray 
of these to make Christ's religion their very own. 
I beg of all individual persons, of all executives, to 
spend more of their time reading the Sermon on 
the Mount and praying for light and wisdom to 
help bring about realisation of this ideal. How 
paltry will the present methods of men look in the 
after light of the near approaching dawn. Give 
up your toys and be men. Hunt for souls of men 
instead of helpless bird and beast. This large 



224 He Restoreth My Soul 

influential electoral class might reform all things 
in a few sessions of Parliament. City councils 
are at the mercy of the electorate. All commercial 
enterprises are in the hands of this class. If any 
persons need to be strong, brave, honest, deter- 
mined, it is this huge body that includes perhaps 
the very best and very worst of our people. The 
competitive system has well-nigh taken all of the 
absolute honesty out of this commercial body. 
And yet this is where our hopes must lie. 

I offer no apology for constantly urging and 
begging every individual, also executives, com- 
mittees, and councils to study carefully, earnestly, 
prayerfully, to know right from wrong and serve 
only that cause which according to his light he 
deems to be right. I rejoice to see so much evi- 
dence of this being done now. Study, pray, obey. 
This plan will bring us out into a strait place. We 
have begged each individual to know that, when 
he attempts a righteous action and is earnestly 
desirous of having more light to know, and more 
strength and courage to obey that light, he is 
assured that God the Father, Jesus Christ His 
One Perfected Son, and the Holy Spirit, the execu- 
tive, is at his side to help him. All the company 
of angels and just men made perfect are witnesses 
of his efforts and will assist and support just as is 
needed, and as we are sincere in our endeavour. 1 

i Heb. i. 14; xii. 22, 23. 



Good Citizen — Redeemed People 225 

After all, are we a Christian nation? Do we 
believe in the Book we so piously term The Bible? 
Is the Faith on the earth? Is it in our nation? 
Is it in my heart? I think that I believe, but do 
I? Have I the courage of true belief? If I could see 
the angels watching at my side I might be braver. 1 
Are my eyes of faith open, or am I still sleeping? 
There is no Holy City, no heaven, for me, when I 
fear, for to fear is to think that no one guards me. 
Sometimes I feel strong as inexorable destiny. 
By faith I know the Eternal Father has His arms 
about me. Sometimes I feel like a puppet, with 
desires that only mock at me, that is tossed about 
by a mocking relentless irony of fate: a feather 
floating in space, to be at some time lodged by the 
damps of the heavens to chaotic debris. Then 
my soul is dark, my love to man is void. There 
is no God, only an inexorable grinding of a series 
of disastrous phenomena. My curiosity only 
compels me to endeavour to live it out. Who 
am I? What am I? Whither am I bound? 

This is the Gethsemane of the soul when it is 
"exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," when 
darkness, black and dense, enshrouds the spirit 
like a pall. After Gethsemane came the victory 
of the Light of Heaven to our Lord. After the 
darkness will come the Light of Heaven to our 
souls. We shall rise to our feet, and with a 

1 2 Kings vi. 16, 17. 
is 



226 He Restoreth My Soul 

calm assurance born of inward light, we shall walk 
up to our cross — whatever it be — with dignity and 
courage, which is only born of the true faith. 
"I know that my Redeemer liveth, and at last He 
will stand up upon the earth: and after my skin, 
even this body, be destroyed, then without my 
flesh shall I see God; whom I, even I, shall see 
on my side, and mine eyes shall behold and not a 
stranger." 

The sleeping soul has no Gethsemane. The 
sleeping soul never rejoices in the Light of God. 
I doubt if a soul were ever re-born without some 
share of the Master's sorrow. Never be dis- 
couraged because you doubt, and know yourself 
to be in the darkness, it is but the awakening of 
the soul, the throes of the new birth. Do not 
stifle the young life, I pray of you. 

Our nation is in an agony of unrest to-day. 
God grant that she may fulfil her destiny by timely 
regeneration. A nation's soul is, of course, the 
whole of a great number of units. Every unit is a 
citizen, either man, woman, or child. Any one of 
these stands a chance of being equal to any other 
of the whole. The whole cannot be greater than 
the unit. The man of the nation, if he be honest- 
minded, will not hide from himself, or deny to 
others, that it is his chief duty not to aggrandise 
himself or his family escutcheon, but to help every 
unit of the whole to live the life that a man born 
in freedom and made in God's image should live 



Good Citizen — Redeemed People 227 

Is it necessary to remind the men of the nation, 
each in his own walk of life, of his responsibilities? 
We think not. We leave that to professional 
economists. Neither are we image breaking. 

Do we wish war to cease? I think so. Should 
we disarm? Much wiser were it to build warships 
enough to encircle the " isles" and arm every 
physically sound full-grown man. If he be a 
true patriot, he will willingly bear arms for the 
peace and security of his nation. He may not 
be allowed to own one foot of land, still by the 
larger law it is his country and he is a citizen 
who should be willing to defend the helpless babies 
without being forced to do so by conscription. 
You ask "Is that Christian teaching?" We 
answer, "Yes," for so shall we have peace, for so, 
until Christ be formed within us as a nation, 
shall we cease to kill our fellows. 

Perhaps the greatest crying crime in our nation 
is her drunkenness. Teach your child that it is 
the curse of our nation, that to drink intoxicants 
is suicidal folly. Show him that he needs all his 
brain power for the general life that lies before him. 
Show him the idiocy, vacancy, imbecility of the 
drunken man's face, tell him of how much good 
food can be obtained by the price of drink among 
the poor. Show him all the different avenues in 
which the accursed poison runs on its suicidal 
mission. 

With pride and content I find myself a citizen 



228 He Restoreth My Soul 

of the greatest and perhaps one of the very best 
states on earth. With pride and content I see our 
cleverest statesmen, maybe faultily, but none the 
less earnestly and patiently, purifying and better- 
ing the laws of my beloved country. Where 
shall you find so much freedom for endeavour, 
so much that is just and wise as in our own beloved 
country? Are the traditions true that she shall 
be the first to enter the Holy City? That she is to 
be the first to entertain the King of kings? Shall 
she bring honour and glory of her nation into the 
City of God? Oh, we pray so. Each one a unit, 
good. The whole good. God's country. 

"The woman tempted me and I did eat." 
This was Adam's excuse for his folly. This 
vulnerable heel of our common father has been 
transmitted to his posterity, the men of our race. 
This alluring influence of Eve over the man has 
been transmitted to her posterity, the women 
of our race. History substantiates this theory. 
All women are not Cleopatras, nor are they, alas, 
St. Monicas, but all women are given by our 
Creator a great influence over men, either for 
good or ill. May we not trace this power to her 
God-given functions of wifehood and motherhood? 
Instinctively a normal woman seeks the good 
of her children, born or unborn. This instinct 
leads to a twofold care in the mother. Uncon- 
sciously a maiden seeks a man who shall be a 
suitable husband for herself as a wife and mother. 



Good Citizen — Redeemed People 229 

This means, in reality, that she seeks a suitable 
father for her children whom she has a restless 
desire to bring into the world of life. Her function 
of motherhood brings with it the care of the lives 
of her offspring. This being so, she naturally 
is a teacher by heritage. She teaches her children 
and is constantly on the lookout for the safety of 
her charge. A woman, being a woman, has the 
instincts, even though she be not a wife or mother. 
Satan was clever when he taught our common 
mother, Eve, to love Adam — and lead him. May 
we not learn this lesson and, as women, love and 
lead all men back into this primitive purity? 
If the responsibility of our nation rests on the 
great mass of the electorate that lies between 
rich and poor, we must find that the conscience 
of that vast mass is wise and righteous, just as its 
women are wise and righteous. It is selfish 
and unreasonable, just in proportion as its women 
are vain and silly. A silly, vain, pleasure-chasing 
young woman we are apt to excuse on the grounds 
of her youth and inexperience, but if she so 
lives until she bear sons and daughters like herself 
and drifts into a purposeless old age, how our 
whole being shrinks from her as though she were 
a travesty of God's good woman. Is she such? 
We rejoice to notice a growing tendency to holy 
motherliness in the highest women of our land. 
To love and be loved by a good man, and bring sons 
and daughters into the world as God in His 



230 He Restoreth My Soul 

providence sees fit, many, few, or none, just as His 
(not your) righteous will sees fit, to rear such 
children in the fear of God and the respect of 
man, that is the true function of God's good 
woman. If a woman neither loves nor is loved 
by a man, or is never married, and such must 
frequently be the case, still her instincts will lead 
her to do precisely the same class of work, only her 
field will be wider, more impersonal. She will find 
all children to be her sons and daughters. Many 
such have been great blessings to humanity. The 
responsibility of wifehood and motherhood is so 
heavy that we think many would shrink from it 
in fear did they realise these duties and the stern 
laws that demand so great sacrifice if the result of 
the union be good. So it becomes the most real 
thing in all our social, economic, and political life, 
that our women be wise and good. All we ask of 
any woman is to be sincere, and as sane as nature 
has endowed her to be, not fanatics, but holy, 
cheerful, mothers. 

The home is either the hotbed of iniquity 
or the purifying furnace of our nation. The 
hotbed where poisonous fungi are grown and fed 
to the race, or it is the place where the purifying 
fires destroy all selfish and murderous tendency 
from out the minds of the children now born, and 
yet to come, making them citizens fit to live in a 
country that is seeking to do the will of God. 
If a child be nursed and reared in a home where 



Good Citizen — Redeemed People 231 

he is deceived and lied to at every turn, can you 
look for him to grow up into an honest man? As 
he grows into youth and with the critical eyes 
and the untrammelled judgment of a child, he sees 
that the whole trend of his parents' life energy 
is self, and never mind the other; will this youth 
naturally seek to bear his fellow's burden instead 
of competing and trying to outdo him in the com- 
mercial, social, or political race that lies before 
him in his maturity? If a mother trains her 
daughter to be vain and trifling, how shall we 
expect to find wise women in the future? If a 
daughter be trained not to seek for and value 
the true love of one good man, but to trade in her 
charms to make a good financially or socially high 
marriage, how shall we hope for faithful wives, or 
holy, patient, self-sacrificing mothers? Simplicity 
of life in the home is the keynote of happiness. 
It brings health, wealth, pleasure, and leisure in its 
train. It brings misery, ill-health, worry, work, 
and no peace to live in a complicated social life. 
Only the idle rich can do it. That is their mission, 
to endeavour pleasantly to pass away their time. 
But the woman of the masses, the mother of the 
electorate, is another class of being. With her 
depends the prosperity of the nation, not by 
suffrage but by her splendid powers of influence. 
Already she is in a majority, standing strongly 
for the right, or what she deems to be the 
right. 



232 He Restoreth My Soul 

It is the simplicity of the plan of redemption 
(outside of Christ) that is the reason of its present 
partial failure. We are apt to think, like the 
leper of old, that the Lord should bid us do some 
great thing, but when He tells us to wash seven 
times in Jordan and be clean, we are in a rage. 
Nothing to do but be clean ! How simple it sounds. 
If we were all washed and were clean it would just 
mean this, would it not? A man whose whole life 
from boyhood had been clean, honest, unselfish, 
would for the honourable reason of love and re- 
spect marry a woman whose whole life from 
babyhood had been clean, honest, unselfish. 
They would naturally be parents of clean, honest, 
unselfish children. This would bring a fine 
nation. Plato's republic would be more than 
realised. 

John the Baptist cried, "Repent, for the King- 
dom of God is at hand." He was the forerun- 
ner of the Redeemer of the World. So then, to 
repent is our first duty. To decide to turn is our 
second. To obey the Redeemer is our final and entire 
duty. How shall we bring ourselves to a state of 
really sincere repentance? If we consider how far 
we now live from the ideal that He gave us, it 
should not be too difficult a thing to repent. We 
often spend much quiet thought on the short- 
comings of our neighbours, suppose we turn the 
searchlight inward for a change. Am I doing 
that which is just and right? Is my home a puri- 



Good Citizen — Redeemed People 233 

f ying fire of good influence or may many iniquitous 
actions and transactions be traced to the evil, self- 
ish influence of my home and myself as a woman. 
If one be at all sincere, this should bring repent- 
ance, even to those whose lives appear blameless. 
Granted that repentance comes, can we have 
strength to turn from that which is evil, and do 
only that which is just and right? When we as 
intelligent beings look about us, we desire to help 
all our neighbours to be better in order that it 
may be the more nearly possible for ourselves 
to be better. If my neighbour's children are 
good, mine have better opportunity for being 
good. If the women with whom I come in con- 
tact are trying to be good and wise mothers, our 
aims being the same, our methods will be, at least, 
in accord with one another. Just the same, if I, a 
business man, wish to be just in my transactions, 
I desire others to be the same, so that it may 
be possible for me. Not that I, as a man or woman, 
am of first importance as a self, but only as a 
unit of the whole. The whole is not better than 
the unit. In unity is strength. Then we may 
suppose the case that we, as separate persons, and 
as a collected whole, repent of our follies and 
unrighteousnesses. We turn in disgust from 
crime and evil in our desires, but can we obey 
this call to repentance and turning from? The 
sorrow for, and the desire to turn from, appears 
to be already in our hearts and minds, but to 



234 He Restoreth My Soul 

obey the real teaching of the Logos of God, that 
were a different thing. 

Our volition is at once our strength and our 
weakness, our success and failure. But fortunately 
we are not helpless even in our most pitiful 
weakness. We have a helper, if we desire Him. 
The Holy Spirit of God is our immediate and ever 
present assistance. We repent. We turn. Alas, 
we do not obey, only in small part. But we know 
the secret of success. We know that in every 
weakness if we do but ask the Father in the name 
of the Son, who was perfected, to send us the Helper, 
the Holy Spirit, He will do so. If we, in the inner- 
most of the innermost, find that we lack desire, we 
must ask for more desire ; if we lack in repent- 
ance, we must ask for clearer vision of our sins 
and the sins of our nation. Ask. Ask and it shall 
be given. Work. We must work and strive 
for this purity of purpose and live with the same 
zeal that we give to business and social life. 
That even is not ardent enough endeavour to 
accomplish highest results. Prayer, constant, 
earnest, is the means by which we succeed. Faith 
in the efficiency of prayer is the limitation to its 
efficacy. "If ye believe," etc. It is of little use 
to endeavour to modify our lives. It is the 
radical change of our standpoint that is wanted. 
If my life be carefully bounded by the decalogue, 
as was the rich young man's, and if I am as lovable 
a person as he, yet if my standpoint is of this 



Good Citizen — Redeemed People 235 

world only, it does not place me in the position of 
mind and soul where I shall be sure to have answer 
to my prayer. The man and woman of our nation 
must pray effectually, or they will not prevail. 
The prayer of the righteous is heard, also the 
prayer of the repentant sinner. We are all sinners, 
therefore we should first offer the prayer of re- 
pentance, then the prayer for strength to turn 
in disgust from our old habits of either body, or 
mind, or both. Then we should pray for strength 
to obey the higher laws, those whose aims are for 
good of the whole, forgetting self; then when we have 
conquered this self tendency enough to sincerely 
desire, not our pleasure, but the redemption of 
the whole, we shall begin to be in a fit state to 
ask God for specific things, but never till then. 
Why? Because until our mind is more nearly in 
tune with the Infinite, we shall, more than likely, 
ask for things that are selfish in their bearings, 
whereas if we are born anew, we shall see things 
a little more nearly like the Infinite Mind. If 
the prayer other than of repentance, of an unre- 
generated one, be answered, we may suppose it 
to be done by our pitiful Father for some other 
reason, some side issue, or some lesson to be taught 
the unregenerated one. So if our prayers are to 
be answered effectually, we must be attuned to the 
Universal Harmony. Since there are none really 
good, and our Teacher knew it, He instructed us, 
fearing that we might ask amiss, to always include 



236 He Restoreth My Soul 

in our prayers, "Thy will be done." This sim- 
plicity of the working of the unity of the human 
soul with Christ and the Father is its difficulty. 
Our minds should be so attuned to the will of God 
that in the smallest detail as well as the most crucial 
moments of our lives, we would turn instinctively 
inward, as it were, to listen for the advice or, 
more rarely, command of the Just One. Therefore 
as we think of the simple working of this unity 
with Christ and the Father, we find its difficulty 
is in its simplicity. We, loving the spectacular, 
desire that He bid us to do some great thing, that 
we may live and be eminent persons throughout 
eternity. Even His disciples quarrelled over 
position in Heaven. He told them if they did 
not repent, turn, and obey His new law, they 
would not be fit to enter Heaven. Better be sure 
to enter than crave for high position. He taught 
them that service for, not command over, human- 
ity was the only test of position in the kingdom 
of God. The poor hard-worked priest or minister 
who serves the people of some remote or down- 
trodden parish of poverty-stricken men and women 
is more often doing so in the spirit of the Redeemer 
than the haughtiest bishops or prelates, cardinals, 
or any such office-seeking persons. Just to be 
clean-minded and holy and in obedient unity to 
our Great Head and in the strength that we derive 
from the executive of Christ, the Holy Spirit, we 
may rest in the great heart of the Father. This 



Good Citizen — Redeemed People 237 

and this only will give us that peace which passeth 
all understanding, this is that which gives us 
rest to our souls, strength for our weakness, wis- 
dom for our foolishness. 

If we are truly born anew from above, we shall 
be a changed people. Our spirits shall have put 
on immortality, from death unto life. We shall 
see this earthly existence as embryo of a wonderful 
future. We shall strive to keep this temple, our 
body, as though it were indeed the temple of the 
Holy Spirit — which indeed it must be. We shall 
never defile it in any way. We shall know our 
fellow travellers also as temples of the Holy Spirit. 
We shall never in any, ever so remote, way, con- 
tribute to the defilement and shame of a fellow 
traveller. We shall unite to cry to the Most High 
for strength in our weakness. We shall exercise 
our faith until it develop into invincible pro- 
portions. We shall expect God to fulfil His 
promises. We shall offer no excuses for evil con- 
duct or evil condition, individually we shall do 
that which is just and right, until the condition so 
much disapproved of ceases to exist. We shall 
ask and receive the particular aid of the Spirit, 
each person to his special need. We shall shrink 
from the hollow cry of "Lord, Lord," but we shall 
do every act of every movement, be it ever so 
small, as though it were an important item in the 
long continued verity of God's workings, bringing 
matters out of chaos into cosmos, out of darkness 



238 He Restoreth My Soul 

into light. We shall realise that we are passing 
out of the night into the glorious morning of the 
seventh (complete) day. 

The season of refining is now in progress. Who 
can deny it? Wickedness is doomed to pass 
away, righteousness shall come — is coming — is 
hurrying along on swift feet. The hearts of the 
fathers are turning toward the children, in that 
there is strong tendency to care for our children, 
born and unborn. We are seeking to turn from 
the error of our ways: we, as individuals and 
as a nation, are seeking to have our minds and 
lives cleansed from all the evils that have prevailed 
while the world has been under the rule of Satan. 
But now is come the time when Christ rules. 
He is cleansing His people. The Holy City is now 
lowering to the earth. Christ is the King of it. 
The Holy Spirit, the Angels of God, the souls of 
just men made perfect in His executive. It is 
written, "Quench not the Spirit." We may not 
deny the assistance of this noble army of helpers 
with impunity, as the price of this folly is death to 
the soul. Why? Because they are God's mes- 
sengers under Christ's (the Logos of God) com- 
mand ; if we blaspheme or deny their power of 
assistance, we die for want of it, just as we should 
die if we refused food and drink for our bodies. 

It is for us to say as individual and nation 
whether we enter this heaven-ruled city with hon- 
our and glory or retreat ignominiously in the 



Good Citizen — Redeemed People 239 

company of that unhappy class who choose to 
remain outside the open gate. Shall we unite 
in our determination to save our national soul 
from death, joining hands in this holy, sane, on- 
ward, upward march of the future life, being 
co-workers with Jesus Christ our Elder Brother, 
joint heirs with Him in His Kingdom? Shall 
we? 

This law of self-preservation is inherent in all 
nature, it is certainly inherent in us. Shall we, 
subverting this divine instinct, changing it into 
selfishness or self-love, refuse the assistance of our 
helper, quenching the Spirit's striving in us and so 
die, or shall we by this rightly directed law save 
our souls by giving ourselves into the hands 
of Him who gave His soul an offering for us, living 
in calm security and loving communion with the 
Comforter, the Spirit of God, in whatsoever man- 
ner He may choose to commune with us, knowing 
that God, our Father, Christ, His Son, the Holy 
Spirit, the Executive or Comforter, are in union 
of mind and purpose, aye, are one in deed and 
truth? Then we may with security and sane 
reason trust most implicitly in Him who gave 
His soul an offering for our souls, this historic 
Jesus of Nazareth, this Logos of God, this one 
perfected Son of our common Father, this High 
Priest who knows our every weakness and so inter- 
cedes ever between us and the Eternal Perfection, 
a Priest for the Ages of Ages, of the order, not of 



240 He Restoreth My Soul 

ritualistic law, but of the spiritual order of the 
Kingdom of God. 

"Come unto Me all ye that labour and are 
heavy laden and I will give you rest to your souls.' ' 

We must nourish our spiritual natures with this 
Bread of Life, this Water of Life ; we shall eat of 
Him, we shall drink of Him, we shall be clothed 
upon by Him, we shall walk by His side, we shall 
indeed live in Him. We shall be changed from 
Adam to Christ — from Death to Life, and thus 
shall we preserve our souls. "He leadeth me 
beside waters of rest. He Restoreth My Soul." 

"Far, far away, like bells at evening pealing, 
The voice of Jesus sounds o'er land and sea, 
And laden souls by thousands meekly stealing, 
Kind Shepherd! turn their weary steps to Thee. 

"Angels! sing on: -your faithful watches keeping, 
Sing us sweet fragments of the songs above; 
Till morning's joy shall end the night of weeping 
And life's long shadows break in cloudless love. 

"Angels of Jesus, Angels of light, 

Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night." 

THE END 



JUN 15 wo 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



